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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Thursday, April 10, 2003

Revenge, drugs involved in woman's murder, court told

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

Police treated the January 2002 disappearance of Tracey Tominaga as a routine missing persons case until they got a call from a man who wanted to tell them everything he knew, officer Phil Camero said in Circuit Court yesterday.

Camero said Ryan Onuma called April 2, provided details about Tominaga's disappearance, and directed police to her grave above Makakilo. Camero testified in the trial of Delaneo Puha, charged with conspiracy, assault and other counts in Tominaga's death.

City Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Van Marter said Puha had been supplying drugs to Jason Perry, who, in turn, was selling drugs to Tominaga, 37, of Kapahulu.

Van Marter said Tominaga called Perry to her home on Brokaw Street on Jan. 18, 2002, saying she wanted drugs.

When Perry arrived, he found Tominaga's friend Kaimi Seu pointing a shotgun at him. Seu made Perry apologize to Tominaga for exposing himself and badgering her for sex.

According to Van Marter:

An outraged Perry met with Puha and five or six other men later at a strip club on Halekauwila Street and plotted his revenge.

On the following Monday, Perry and Onuma lured Tominaga into going with them to an isolated home in the Palehua area above Makakilo by offering her drugs.

Perry had asked Puha to bring four other men who had been at the strip club.

Seven men beat Tominaga as Perry demanded that she name the man who pointed the shotgun at him. Tominaga finally gave him a false name, and Perry strangled her. (Perry has pleaded not guilty to murdering Tominaga and will be tried at a later date.)

However, Puha's lawyer, Reginald Minn, said Puha never was part of a plan to kidnap and kill Tominaga.

He said Puha rounded up "his boys" and went to Palehua as Perry had asked him to "with some vague idea" that the men were going to "scare, slap around and perhaps point a gun" at Tominaga's head, but not "to kill someone."

Minn said the evidence will show that Onuma and Perry "got carried away and ended up murdering" Tominaga and that Puha never "agreed, planned or conspired" to kidnap her.

The trial, before Circuit Judge Karen Ahn, continues today.