Blood in Aki's car matches slain girl's

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

The prosecution's case against murder defendant Christopher Aki ended yesterday after a DNA expert said samples taken from three different areas of Aki's car contained DNA that matched that of Kahealani "Kahea" Indreginal.

Aki, now 21, is charged with second-degree murder. City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle contends Aki beat the girl to death with a pipe a day after smoking crystal methamphetamine. The 11-year-old had disappeared from her home in the Halawa public housing project on Dec. 10, 2002.

Aki's lawyer, state Deputy Public Defender Todd Eddins, maintains Aki falsely confessed to the killing because the real killer, her uncle Dennis Cacatian, threatened to kill Aki and his family if he told the truth.

In her testimony yesterday, Charlotte Word of the Orchid Cellmark laboratory in Germantown, Md., said the girl's DNA was found on a piece of carpet taken from the front driver's side of Aki's car and on the floor mats in the front and rear passenger side.

When he confessed to police detectives that he had killed the girl, Aki said he used a pole to beat the girl, then put it on the front floor of the passenger's side. Aki said he hit the girl a second time with the pole and put it on the floor of the rear passenger side.

Aki also told police he sat in the driver's seat of the car with the door open and washed some of the blood off his hands with water, most of which fell onto the ground.

Word said her lab analyzed a watch recovered from Aki's car and found DNA that matched Aki's, along with a much greater amount from another man that did not match a blood sample provided earlier this year by Cacatian.

The defense is scheduled to begin presenting its evidence today, with testimony focusing on a large rock that Eddins has said is the real murder weapon. He said Aki likely will testify on his own behalf toward the middle of next week.

Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.