Jurors in Big Isle murder trial view man's taped confession
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawai'i — A Big Island jury yesterday watched a videotaped confession by John McGovern in which the 19-year-old former Puna man admitted to police that he shot two men in the head in a double murder last year.
During hours of taped interviews with police that were played for the jury, McGovern at first denied knowing anything about the whereabouts of Cassidy Toole, 20, and Wesley Matheson, 19.
After police discovered the bodies of the two in Puna and arrested McGovern in connection with the murders, McGovern told police he happened upon the scene of the double murder of Toole and Matheson just after they had been shot.
In a third version of his story, McGovern finally admitted to police during questioning in Kona that he shot both men.
McGovern is charged with first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder, auto theft and a firearms violation in connection with the case. If convicted of first-degree murder, he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.
McGovern's friend, Kyle Zengy Thurston Hill, last year pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder for his part in the slayings on May 6, 2002. Hill is expected to testify against McGovern later in the trial.
McGovern told police Detective Richard Miyamoto that Toole and Matheson had threatened to shoot McGovern and Hill because of a drug deal that went sour.
In his taped statement to police on June 1, 2002, McGovern said Toole and Matheson were angry because they had bought Ecstasy from some of McGovern's friends, and the transaction had not worked out as planned.
"Well, one of these days we all got high, we had separate drugs from them," McGovern said in his videotaped statement. "We're like, we were all high, and decided to get a gun and we go over there and we blow them."
McGovern said he and Hill obtained a .22-caliber rifle, and went to the home Toole and Matheson shared in the rural Fern Acres subdivision in Puna. The four then engaged in some target practice behind the home, McGovern told police.
According to McGovern, he and Toole then went inside the home, and Hill remained outside with Matheson. McGovern said Hill then shot Matheson in the back of the head, reloaded, and went inside the home and handed the gun to him.
McGovern said he shot Toole in the side of the head as Toole sat on a couch. McGovern said he then went outside, saw that Matheson was still alive and shot him in the back of the head.
The two bodies were loaded into a van and dumped in a vacant lot nearby, McGovern said in his statement to police.
Police initially treated the disappearance of Toole and Matheson as a missing-persons case, but Miyamoto testified yesterday the breakthrough in the investigation came after Matheson's mother offered a reward for information about her son's whereabouts.
Hill responded by providing a map to the bodies, which was then turned over to police, Miyamoto said. Police located the bodies on May 30.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.
