Punchbowl shooting victim takes stand
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
A Punchbowl man who was shot and critically wounded when he walked in on a teenager who was burglarizing his home last summer said in court yesterday that the armed intruder first demanded his wallet and then tried to force him to the lowest level of his home.
Eric Kawamoto, 44, said he began to comply with the orders to go downstairs but realized the intruder might shoot him once he reached the bottom of the stairs.
"I told him, 'If you're gonna (expletive) shoot me, just shoot me,' " Kawamoto said. "I just remember saying it one time."
The youth, later identified as Miti Maugaotega Jr., pointed the gun at him as he stood on the bottom stairs landing and pulled the trigger, Kawamoto said. But instead of a loud bang, he only heard a click.
Kawamoto said he stepped toward Maugaotega after the gun misfired, thinking that he might be able to disarm the burglar.
At that point, Maugaotega pulled the trigger a second time, and Kawamoto said he was hit in the upper right chest.
He said he was able to stagger to the front door of the adjoining duplex, where he asked his neighbor to call 911.
Maugaotega was captured by police about 90 minutes later.
Maugaotega, 18, is on trial in Circuit Court on charges of attempted murder, burglary, robbery and a weapons offense.
City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle has called the shooting emblematic of a property crime epidemic on O'ahu, one fueled primarily by drug use.
During his often emotional testimony, Kawamoto pointed to Maugaotega, who was seated at the defense table, and identified him as the man who robbed and shot him June 26.
Maugaotega's lawyer, state deputy public defender Walter Rodby, does not dispute that Maugaotega shot Kawamoto, but he said during a break in the trial yesterday that he will ask the jury to find him guilty of the lesser offense of assault.
In his opening statement, Rodby told the jury that Maugaotega had not planned to shoot Kawamoto, but did so after Kawamoto refused to go downstairs. He said the teen thought that Kawamoto might try to block his escape.
Rodby said Maugaotega shot Kawamoto only once instead of multiple times, an indication that he was not trying to kill him.
During his testimony yesterday, Kawamoto said he returned from work early on his motorcycle to get the keys to his mother-in-law's car so he could pick the family dog up from the veterinarian's office. But when he entered the home, he immediately noticed something was wrong because the clothes had been torn from two Japanese dolls, which were on the floor instead of in the glass cases where they were normally kept.
Kawamoto said he went to investigate when Maugaotega came toward him from the kitchen with the gun pointed at him. "He told me, 'Give me your money — I'm gonna (expletive) shoot you if you don't,' " Kawamoto said.
He said he emptied the cash from his wallet but that Maugaotega insisted he hadn't given him all of the money.
Robyn Pacheco said she was the first police officer on the scene. She said she arrived to find two women kneeling over Kawamoto in front of his neighbor's door.
"He was injured, so I opened his shirt and saw a hole in his chest with blood coming out. I called for an ambulance," Pacheco said.
Several police officers said they saw someone matching the shooter's description at various points along Pauoa Road and Nu'uanu Avenue, but that he eluded capture several times. Officer Stason Tanaka said he finally caught up with Maugaotega when he fell after scaling a chain-link fence behind Hawaii Baptist Academy off Nu'uanu Avenue.
Testimony in the trial could conclude tomorrow. Rodby said a decision has not been made as to whether Maugaotega will testify.
Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8030.
