Punchbowl burglar found guilty of attempted murder

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

Eric Kawamoto can't feel his fingers rubbing across his upper left chest.

State law requires that Miti Maugaotega be sentenced to a mandatory term of life in prison with the possibility of parole on the attempted murder count. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

An intruder was inside the house. He stuck a gun in Kawamoto's face, demanded money and shot him in the chest with a .45-caliber handgun — all within a matter of minutes.

Yesterday morning, a Circuit Court jury found the intruder, Miti Maugaotega Jr., guilty of attempted murder, robbery, burglary and multiple gun and drug offenses.

Now, the 18-year-old who tried to take away Kawamoto's life on June 26 will likely spend a large chunk of his own behind bars.

"It's not like I hate him or anything," Kawamoto said after the verdict was delivered yesterday. "It's just that I feel that he should be kept behind bars for as long as possible so that he can't hurt anyone else."

State law requires that Maugaotega be sentenced to a mandatory term of life in prison with the possibility of parole on the attempted murder count. It would then be up to the Hawai'i Paroling Authority to decide how many years he must serve before he is eligible for parole.

But because Maugaotega used a semiautomatic handgun to shoot Kawamoto, the law requires that he serve a mandatory minimum of 20 years on the attempted-murder count before he is eligible for parole.

Eric Kawamoto, the homeowner shot by a burglar, hugs prosecutor Peter Carlisle after jurors convicted the attacker of attempted murder. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

Honolulu City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle said he chose to take the case himself rather than assigning it to a deputy prosecutor because it was "emblematic" of what he has been saying for several years — that drug use can lead to an increase in property crimes, which, in turn, can lead to more serious crimes such as attempted murder in Kawamoto's case or even worse.

Maugaotega's convictions yesterday included cocaine and methamphetamine possession. Those convictions were based on packets of cocaine and methamphetamine residue in a glass pipe found on him when he was arrested.

Carlisle faulted the state's juvenile justice system for allowing Maugaotega to fly to American Samoa rather than sentencing him to the Youth Correctional Facility for criminal wrongdoing that took place in the years before the Kawamoto shooting.

"The juvenile justice system did a disservice to Mr. Maugaotega and certainly to Mr. Kawamoto," Carlisle said.

The jury of seven women and five men deliberated about seven hours, spread over parts of Friday, Monday and yesterday morning, before announcing at about 9 a.m. that it had reached a verdict.

Although some jurors were unclear on Maugaotega's intention, Meredith said, the transcript read to the jury Friday made it clear that it was a "knowing" act. The key discussion surrounded the preparation for a second shot after the gun had misfired, she said.

"The prosecutor asked, 'So you decided to rack back the gun?' and he said, 'Yes,' " the juror said. "That lends itself to the knowingness."

Meredith added that the jurors dismissed Kawamoto's statement to Maugaotega — "If you're gonna shoot me, just (expletive) shoot me" — simply as evidence of the "adrenaline that was pumping in both of them."

Kawamoto sat in the front row of Judge Marie Milk's courtroom, his attention riveted to the clerk as she announced the jury's finding of guilty on each of the counts.

After the verdicts were announced, Kawamoto and his wife, Leslie, an Advertiser employee, shook hands with Carlisle and embraced him.

Maugaotega's lawyer, state Deputy Public Defender Walter Rodby, said Maugaotega was disappointed with the verdict. Rodby had argued that Maugaotega never intended to shoot Kawamoto but did so after Kawamoto balked at being ordered to go down the steps leading to the home's lowest level.

Rodby asked the jury to find Maugaotega guilty of no more than first-degree assault, which would have resulted in a sentence ranging from probation to up to 10 years in prison.

"Miti and the Maugaotega family are grateful that Mr. Kawamoto was not more gravely injured," Rodby said after the verdict was read. "Although we are disappointed with the jury's decision, we are grateful that they did not simply rush to judgment."

Rodby said he "realized going in" that it would be difficult to defend Maugaotega on the charges he faced.

"Anytime you've got a homeowner who returns home to be shot by a burglar, it's going to be tough to defend," Rodby said. "We were grateful for the fact that Miti did not fire the gun more than one time, which would have caused even more injury to Mr. Kawamoto."

Now that Maugaotega has been convicted of attempted second-

degree murder in the Kawamoto case, "there is a very strong likelihood" that he will plead guilty to four other criminal cases against him on Monday, Rodby said. Those cases involve two other burglaries, a sex assault and a charge of having a concealed weapon while in custody at a youth detention facility where Maugaotega was sent after he was arrested in connection with the Kawamoto case.

Kawamoto said he plans to be present when Maugaotega is sentenced May 11 and to tell the court about the effect the shooting has had on his life. He was listed in extremely critical condition when he arrived at The Queen's Medical Center, where he was hospitalized for five days.

Kawamoto said he initially replayed the series of events over and over in his head, wondering if he might have done anything to keep from being shot.

The first wrong move, he said, was to proceed into the house when things appeared to be in disarray. "The smart thing would have been to just stay away and call the police," Kawamoto said.

By the time it was becoming clear to him that something was very wrong, a man emerged from the shadows of the kitchen of his home and stuck a gun in his face.

Because he was a witness, Kawamoto could not attend each day of the trial but hopes to read a transcript to learn everything that was said about the shooting.

"I knew that I was lucky to live so close to Queen's," Kawamoto said. "I was conscious on the way down and I could hear the EMTs calling in the information."

There was no bright light for him to walk toward, no out-of-body sensation of hovering above the operating table watching emergency workers trying to save his life. "I didn't even have the feeling I might be dying that day. I had confidence that they would be able to keep me alive," he said.

Kawamoto said he rolled the question around and around in his head about what might have happened if he had just chosen to call police and not enter the ransacked home.

"But then (Maugaotega) might have just gotten away and gone on to hurt someone else, maybe even worse than me," he said.

If the incident at his home had happened a day earlier, it is possible that his wife or mother-in-law might have walked in on the intruder, Kawamoto said.

"I guess it was kind of lucky that it turned out to be me," Kawamoto said.

Advertiser staff writer Vicki Viotti contributed to this report. Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.