Killer who escaped Hawaii psychiatric hospital is captured in California

The search for a dangerous man who escaped from a Hawaii psychiatric hospital and flew to San Jose ended Wednesday after authorities located him in the Central Valley.

A source told this newspaper that Randall Saito was taken into custody Wednesday in San Joaquin County. He had been seen in Stockton as recently as Monday.

Saito, who was acquitted of a 1979 murder by reason of insanity, left the state hospital outside Honolulu on Sunday at 10 a.m., took a taxi to a chartered plane that took him to the island of Maui and then boarded another plane to San Jose, Honolulu police said.

“Saito is considered extremely dangerous and should not be approached,” police said in a statement late Tuesday.

The FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service reviewed security footage from San Jose International Airport in connection with the manhunt, said Jon Vaden, a spokesman for the airport.

Saito was committed to the hospital outside Honolulu in 1981, two years after he was acquitted in the killing of Sandra Yamashiro.

The victim was shot and repeatedly stabbed before her body was found in her car at a mall.

“He is a very dangerous individual,” said Wayne Tashima, a Honolulu prosecutor who argued in 2015 against Saito receiving passes to leave the hospital grounds without an escort.