Avery Nissen has pleaded not guilty after police said a captain was stabbed during a private tour.
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii — A Kansas man accused of stabbing a Kona snorkel boat captain during a private tour has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial Aug. 25, court coverage of the case shows.
Avery Nissen, 21, of Overland Park, Kansas, is charged with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and second-degree assault. Hawaiʻi Island police said the charges stem from an April 16 attack aboard a fishing vessel off the Kona coast. The victim, 62-year-old captain Stan Lurbiecki, was hospitalized in stable condition after suffering a stab wound to his lower abdomen and cuts to his head and hands.
The legal track began the afternoon police were called to Honokōhau Harbor. Kona patrol officers responded at 3:21 p.m. after learning a vessel was returning from sea with both the victim and the suspect aboard. The boat had been on a three-hour snorkel tour. Police said passengers intervened and restrained Nissen after the attack. The next day, April 17, police announced that prosecutors had approved three felony charges. Bail was set at $1.57 million, and Nissen’s first court appearance was scheduled in Kona District Court. In later proceedings, the defense asked that the case be suspended for a mental health evaluation. Prosecutors did not object, and a judge granted the request.
The criminal complaint places the case in a narrow set of facts that investigators are still sorting out. Police said the captain was attacked with a fillet knife while the vessel was off the Kona coast. They did not release a motive. Later court reporting said witnesses described Nissen as anxious and erratic before the stabbing. Those accounts said he paced on the boat, opened cabinets and had earlier returned to the vessel after becoming upset in the water. Officials have not said whether those details explain the attack. They are part of the record now surrounding the charges, along with the weapon, the captain’s injuries and statements from people aboard the boat.
Lurbiecki has described a sudden attack during the return to harbor. He said he had taken Nissen, Nissen’s mother and a sibling out for a private snorkel trip with Hawaiʻi Nautical. Nissen stayed aboard while the other two passengers snorkeled, Lurbiecki said. After the group returned and the boat turned back toward Honokōhau Harbor, the captain said Nissen got a 10-inch fillet knife from the galley and stabbed him without warning. “I wrestled the knife out of him and he continued to frantically stab away at me,” Lurbiecki said. He also said Nissen’s mother tried to help during the struggle.
The events after the alleged stabbing could become a central issue for witnesses at trial. Lurbiecki said Nissen jumped overboard after the struggle, forcing the injured captain to deal with a man-overboard situation while bleeding from multiple wounds. The captain said he used a towel to hold pressure on a neck wound and turned the boat to recover Nissen from the ocean. Once Nissen was back aboard, Lurbiecki said, the suspect sat with his mother for the rest of the trip. Nissen’s sibling helped apply pressure to the captain’s wounds, according to Lurbiecki. Medics and police met the boat when it reached the harbor.
The defense request for a mental health evaluation did not erase the charges. It paused the case while the court sought information on Nissen’s condition and his ability to proceed. That step is common when lawyers raise questions about a defendant’s mental state in a serious criminal case, but it does not decide guilt or innocence. After the case returned to the calendar, reports said Nissen pleaded not guilty at arraignment. A judge kept bail at $1.57 million. The court then set a July 13 pretrial conference and an Aug. 25 trial date, giving prosecutors and defense lawyers time to review records, interview witnesses and prepare motions.
The charges carry different roles in the case. The attempted murder count addresses the state’s claim that Nissen tried to kill the captain. The assault counts address the injuries police say Lurbiecki suffered during the same event. Police described those injuries as a lower abdominal stab wound and many cuts to the head and hands. Lurbiecki later said he received several blood transfusions. Prosecutors are expected to rely on medical records, witness statements, police reports and any physical evidence collected from the boat. The defense has not publicly laid out a full trial argument, and no public ruling has decided whether mental health evidence will be presented to jurors.
The setting may shape how jurors hear the case. The alleged attack happened far from a street, store or home, in the close quarters of a tour vessel returning from open water. There were few people aboard, but each may have seen a different part of the event. The crew member, Nissen’s mother, Nissen’s sibling and Lurbiecki could all be important witnesses. Police said passengers restrained Nissen, while Lurbiecki said his attacker later went overboard and was brought back onto the vessel. Any timeline built for trial will have to account for the snorkel stop, the return trip, the location of the knife, the struggle and the response at the harbor.
Lurbiecki, who said he has been a boat captain for 35 years, has called the attack unlike anything he had seen on the water. “This is like the most random, wildest, craziest thing you’ll ever hear of,” he said after the incident. The statement helped turn a local harbor response into a widely followed story. Still, the formal case now rests on court filings, witness testimony and the state’s burden of proof. Nissen is presumed not guilty unless proven guilty in court.
The next scheduled milestone is the July 13 pretrial conference. The trial is set for Aug. 25, and the motive for the alleged attack has not been established publicly.
Author note: Last updated May 9, 2026.