Man, 35, guilty in Waikiki killing

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

A man accused of murdering a Waikiki store owner during a botched scam last year was found guilty yesterday of the lesser charge of reckless manslaughter.

The Circuit Court jury of seven men and five women deliberated for one day before finding Daiki Iba, of Japan, guilty of manslaughter.

The verdict means that Iba, 35, will face a term of no more than 20 years when he is sentenced Sept. 3 by Circuit Judge Michael Town.

The judge also has the option of placing Iba on probation and sentencing him to up to a year in prison.

Had the jury found Iba guilty as charged of second-degree murder, he would have faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole.

"Of course we're disappointed with the verdict — we felt there was a lot of planning on his part," Honolulu Deputy Prosecutor Don Pacarro said.

The prosecution said that Iba went to the Seawind Surf and Sea store on Royal Hawaiian Avenue on April 22, 2003, under the guise of converting 3 million yen into U.S. currency but tried to trick store owner Michiko Sakata by carrying three envelopes containing worthless strips of paper.

Iba's plan went awry when Sakata demanded to see what was in the envelopes and then balked at giving Iba $24,000 in U.S. currency, Pacarro said during the trial. With his plan foiled, Iba then stole $8,500 from the store's cash register and was motioning as if to choke Sakata when police arrived, Pacarro said.

Sakata, 44, did not regain consciousness and was taken off life support on April 25, 2003. "As far as the causation (of Sakata's death) is concerned, we felt the evidence was overwhelming ... ," Pacarro said.

He said the revelation during the trial that Sakata had methamphetamine in her system at the time of her death may have weighed into the jury's decision to find Iba guilty of the lesser charge.

"Maybe the jury was thinking that crystal methamphetamine somehow contributed to her death," Pacarro said.

He called the fact that methamphetamine was found in Sakata's system a "red herring" but said it had to be allowed into the trial because Iba claimed self-defense

Iba's lawyer, state Deputy Public Defender Ed Harada, had argued during the trial that Iba never intended to injure, much less kill, Sakata. He said Iba fully intended to convert Japanese yen to U.S. currency and carried envelopes filled with phony cash because he had been robbed of $5,000 in Waikiki about four months prior to the incident with Sakata.

Iba testified during the trial that he told Sakata he was carrying fake money, that Sakata asked to see some of the phony cash and that she became hostile, refused to give the money back, threw him to the floor and dug her fingernails into his cheeks during a struggle in a narrow space behind a store display case.

Harada said Iba was "very disappointed" with the verdict even though it means he faces a much reduced sentence.

"He knows the difference between the life sentence he could have gotten for murder and the possibility of having to do 20 years," Harada said. "But I think he's having difficulty contemplating even having to do 20 years."

Harada said he plans to ask for probation when Iba is sentenced.

"He has no criminal any where else in the world and is a good man by all accounts, including those of his supporters who were here in court," Harada said.

He said that Sakata attacked Iba and that there was no question "she had smoked ice" before the struggle with Iba began.

"The bottom line here is that Daiki Iba never intended to cause her death," Harada said.

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