By William Cole
Advertiser Courts Writer
Fourteen years after Joseph Richard "Binzo" Victorino reportedly fled the Islands to escape a murder charge, city prosecutors have been able to piece together enough of the case to indict him again.
The court reporter’s notes from the original grand jury proceedings are gone, three non-material witnesses have died, and the Kalihi bar where authorities say Victorino shot business associate Michael Burns Maher on Nov. 22, 1986, is gone.
But investigators were able to locate several key witnesses to the shooting who are still on O‘ahu, said city deputy prosecutor Wayne Tashima.
"Addresses change, places of employment change," Tashima said. "The investigators out to look for them did a great job in locating these people."
The O‘ahu grand jury last week indicted Victorino on charges of murder and carrying a firearm without a permit — the same charges the one-time Sand Island salvage worker successfully evaded for 14 years, authorities say.
Victorino, 66, was arrested in November in Kitsap County, Wash., and extradited to Hawai‘i. He is being held on $55,000 bond. Police say he was using the name of a dead person.
Prosecutors sought to re-indict Victorino after defense attorney Richard Hoke requested either the original grand jury transcript or a dismissal of the case. Court reporters destroy their notes after 10 years, Tashima said, and no other record existed of the testimony.
But Tashima said investigators had found several witnesses present at the time of the shooting, including two who saw Victorino fire at Maher. Hoke said he would drop his earlier request as a result of the new indictment.
"Now we get the (new) transcript," Hoke said. "We’re back at square one. We’ll see where we go from here." Victorino pleaded not guilty in December, but will be arraigned again.
He was indicted in 1986 after witnesses told police he shot Maher, 49, of ‘Aiea, at the PWC Lounge in Kalihi. Police say the two argued over business dealings before Victorino shot Maher several times in the chest.
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