Suspect showed pattern of abuse
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawai'i — When Lori Carpio Crossley first met Ernest Horcajo III at Spencer Beach Park in Kawaihae, she found him charming. She didn't know he was living on the beach and didn't see his violent side.
By the time their relationship ended a year later, Carpio Crossley was bruised and battered, with six broken ribs and other injuries, she said. The abuse changed her life.
Horcajo
Horcajo, 24, was convicted of second-degree assault for beating the woman — his third conviction involving domestic violence — and he went to jail for 15 months.
In June, Carpio Crossley got a call from the Big Island prosecutor's office notifying her that her former boyfriend was about to be released and enrolled in a drug treatment program. She was advised by the office to get a temporary restraining order to keep Horcajo away, she said.
"I told them that was not a good idea. That last court hearing, he still had that look in his eyes like he was mad, that he was going to get even," said Carpio Crossley, 36. "He's dangerous, and I told them that from the beginning. He makes me cry just looking at him in court."
Now Horcajo is back in jail, accused of holding his 19-year-old girlfriend captive from mid-October until Dec. 1, repeatedly sexually assaulting her and viciously beating her, causing broken ribs, a broken jaw and nose, and a ruptured spleen and kidney.
Court documents say Horcajo beat the woman with a golf club and a length of pipe, and used various objects to sexually assault her.
The woman was a virtual captive at a home in the Ainaloa Estates subdivision in Puna until another woman took her to the Pahoa police station Dec. 1. Police arrested Horcajo later that day.
Police already had been looking for Horcajo, who tested positive for methamphetamine use July 2, less than three weeks after he was released from jail. He never completed the required drug treatment program, according to court records, and a warrant was issued for his arrest Nov. 3 after he failed to check in with a probation officer.
Carpio Crossley said she is upset that no one listened to her. "I am scared, but I'm more angry than scared, and I'm angry at the state for doing what they did, not following up," she said. "It could have been any one of us. It could have been me again."
"They're out fixing pukas in the road when they should be putting him in help. He needs help. And now they let him out and somebody else got hurt. She could have died," Carpio Crossley said. "That is sad. I think the state owes me and this girl. I got hurt. I still didn't pay all my medical bills, I cannot pay all the medical bills."
For help on the Big Island, call the West Hawai'i Domestic Abuse Shelter at (808) 322-7233, or Hale 'Ohana Spouse Abuse Shelter in East Hawai'i at (808) 959-8864.
First Deputy Prosecutor Charlene Iboshi said she understands how Carpio Crossley would be upset, and said prosecutors are also "angry and frustrated" that Horcajo is accused of re-offending. But she said the blame lies with Horcajo because "it's the defendant's actions that brought him back into court."
Help available
Iboshi said prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain that meant Horcajo would serve only a year in jail in part to protect the victim in the case from the ordeal of testifying at trial.
"We feel for her, we understand why she's frustrated," Iboshi said. "It's frustrating for us dealing with this terrible problem of drugs and violence."
Lee Lord, executive director of the social service program Turning Point for Families, said it is not unusual for an abuser to go from one victim to another, repeating the same abusive pattern.
It also is not unusual for a woman to stay under an abuser's control unless she gets help to escape, said Linda Slutter, Alternatives to Violence program director for the Big Island. Slutter said some women in abusive relationships are "paralyzed by fear," and have been under someone else's control for so long they find it difficult to break free.
According to a court affidavit filed this week in the Horcajo case, the 19-year-old woman told police he "would not allow her to speak to others, he was constantly following her, and told her she would be killed if she left him."
Lord said he would like to see tougher penalties meted out to repeat offenders in domestic violence cases, although Slutter said she still wants the court to have discretion in sentencing to treat each case individually. She said treatment can be effective in many cases.
Slutter said a study showed that 70 percent to 80 percent of those who completed the court-ordered anger management program run by Alternatives to Violence did not commit further abuse for at least year.
Carpio Crossley said Horcajo told her he came from a violent family background and had spent much of his life in youth detention facilities. Her yearlong relationship with him deteriorated when he began using crystal meth heavily, she said.
"I want him to not come out forever this time," she said.
Horcajo is being held at the Hawai'i Community Correctional Center in lieu of $104,000 bail on charges of attempted murder, kidnapping, sexual assault and assault. A preliminary hearing was rescheduled from yesterday to Dec. 16.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.
