Murder inquiry was lax, jury told
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawai'i — A defense attorney for Tetsuya "Grizzly" Yamada told a jury yesterday that Yamada is an innocent man who "took the hit" for the 1996 slayings of two Hilo women, in part because police conducted a "lazy" investigation.
In the opening arguments in Yamada's second trial for the killings, attorney Gerard Lee Loy said police closed the investigation into the murder of Yamada's former wife, Carla Russell, and her daughter, Rachel DeCambra, too soon and failed to pursue another possible suspect.
That suspect, Lee Loy said, was Yamada's wife at the time, Puanani Haili, who died in 1999.
Forensic tests of Yamada's clothes found no evidence of gunpowder or blood spatters that should have been present if he fired the shotgun blasts that killed Russell and DeCambra, Lee Loy said.
Yamada, 67, was convicted in 1999 of two counts of manslaughter for the Sept. 29, 1996, slayings of Russell, 50, and DeCambra, 23. Jurors opted for the lesser charge after Yamada's defense attorney at the time, Michael Ebesugawa, argued that Yamada suffered from blackouts caused by earlier head injuries and should not be held responsible for the crimes.
The state Supreme Court overturned the convictions in 2002, ruling that jurors had received improper instructions.
In his new trial, Yamada is charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. If convicted of first-degree murder for killing more than one person, Yamada would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Hashizaki told the jury yesterday that Yamada "put an end to his problems" by killing Russell and DeCambra and admitted to police on three occasions that he shot the women.
The victims lived on Yamada's Waiakea-uka property in a house next to a home Yamada shared with Haili.
Hashizaki said the killings occurred against a backdrop of a series of disputes at the 889 Ainalako Road property that finally prompted Russell to obtain court orders to keep Yamada and Haili away from her and DeCambra.
On the evening of the shootings, police were called to the home because of an unfinished 911 call. Officers found Russell's body behind the house. DeCambra was discovered dead in a closet in the home with a telephone she had apparently used to call for help.
Yamada approached the first police officer at the scene, holding the shotgun used in the killings, and the officer ordered him at gunpoint to drop the weapon. Yamada did as he was ordered and told the officer, "That's what I shot them with," according to Hashizaki.
In an interview that evening with police detective Edwin Tanaka, according to Hashizaki, Yamada said he had overheard the two women laughing at him and talking about him, saying: "That Jap married a useless Hawaiian."
Yamada told the detective he became angry, went to his home and grabbed a shotgun, loaded it and then "blacked out," Hashizaki said.
Yamada told police that when he regained consciousness, both women were dead and he was holding the shotgun, the prosecutor said. "He realized that he was the one who killed Rachel and Carla."
The defense attorney offered a different version of events, saying Haili admitted to the shootings.
Lee Loy told the jury that when the police officer ordered Yamada to drop the shotgun, a hysterical Haili told the officer: "Don't shoot, don't shoot. If you want to shoot somebody, shoot me — I did it."
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.
