Victim's son speaks at parole hearing
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
Benjamin Lum has fond memories of his mother, Ellen, particularly of her healing hands that rubbed his chest during bad asthma attacks when he was a child.
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At her funeral nearly seven years ago, Lum said those hands were the only recognizable features of the mother he knew. He did not recognize her face, which had been pummeled during a botched burglary.
Ellen Lum was beaten to death during a 1994 burglary.
He thought for a moment that his mother was not dead and that the woman who had been beaten and strangled was someone else. But then one of Ellen Lum's six children pointed to her hands, and reality hit Benjamin.
"There they were: the hands that worked Popo's shop during the war, the hands that filled pineapples in the Dole cans, and the very hands that rubbed my chest to ease the pain of my frequent 'enemy.' Those hands that I longed for now more than ever," Lum said.
Lum spoke of his mother at a hearing before the Hawai'i Paroling Authority yesterday to determine how many years his mother's killer will have to spend in prison before being eligible for parole.
Samson Kauhi, 39, pleaded guilty last year to the 1994 beating death of Ellen Lum, 74, in her Makiki home. Kauhi and his girlfriend broke into Lum's home Nov. 14, 1994, and he ransacked the home in a search for drugs.
Not finding anything, Kauhi punched, kicked, stomped and strangled the 4-foot-11, 118-pound woman, prosecutors said. Lum's back was broken, her shoulder dislocated and the blows to her head were so severe that her brain bled.
A jury convicted Kauhi in 1995 of murder and burglary, and he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The parole board in 1996 set consecutive minimum sentences of 40 years for the murder conviction and 10 years for the burglary.
But the Hawai'i Supreme Court in 1997 set aside the verdict and asked for a new trial because of a flaw in the jury selection. Last August, Kauhi pleaded guilty to murder and in return prosecutors agreed to drop the burglary charge and not take a position on his sentence with the paroling authority.
Circuit Judge Wilfred Watanabe sentenced Kauhi to life in prison and said he must serve at least 15 years because he committed a crime against an elderly person. The sentence runs concurrently with a term he received in 1982 for parole revocation, and Kauhi already has spent eight years in prison.
Yesterday, Benjamin Lum, along with brothers Vincent and Mike, asked the parole board to increase Kauhi's minimum term to 50 years.
"I have a deep hope that you will put the murderer away for a very long time, so long that when he is released, if he is still alive, he will be too old, decrepit and helpless to hurt anyone else. That is the nightmare I wish to be awaken from," Benjamin Lum said. "I am afraid that he will be released early to commit other horrible crimes. Then it will become some other person's nightmare to live. That would be a shame."
In a video conference call from Halawa Correctional Center, where Kauhi is serving his term, defense attorney Clifford Hunt argued that the parole board's original 40-year minimum sentence should stand. Kauhi was present, but did not speak.
Hunt said his client has admitted guilt and apologized for the crime.
"To impose any higher than the original minimum that was given by the board would effectively punish his right to exercise his right to appeal," Hunt argued.
Parole board chairman Alfred Beaver Sr. said he would seek an opinion from the attorney general's office on whether the board is bound by it's earlier ruling or whether it could change the minimum term.
Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8025.
