Posted on: Tuesday, May 6, 2003

Witness says he robbed murder defendant

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

A prosecution witness said yesterday that he pointed a shotgun at the head of the man accused of strangulating a Kapahulu woman and then robbed him of crystal methamphetamine and about $100.

Kaimi Seu said he pointed the gun at Jason Perry to force him to apologize to Tracey Tominaga for dropping his trousers and exposing himself to her. She disappeared in late January 2002. Her body was found three months later in a hillside grave in a ravine above Makakilo.

City Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Van Marter said Perry killed Tominaga, 37, out of rage over the shotgun incident, and that Perry killed a man named Edward Fuller a few days later to keep Fuller from telling what he knew about Tominaga's death.

But Perry's lawyer, David Bettencourt, has said Seu fabricated the story about Perry making sexual advances toward Tominaga to cover up the robbery.

Seu stuck by his story yesterday, saying Tominaga mentioned to him five or six times that she was upset that Perry was making sexual advances. He said he tried to talk Tominaga out of her plan to have him confront Perry with the shotgun but that she kept asking him to make Perry leave her alone.

Seu said he did not tell police about the shotgun incident the first time he was questioned because he did not want to implicate himself in any criminal acts. He said he has been granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying at Perry's trial.

Bettencourt has said the evidence would show that Seu threatened to harm Perry's family if he did not provide free drugs to him and Tominaga.

But Seu yesterday denied it.

The trial, before Circuit Judge Karen Ahn, is expected to last two to three weeks.