Medical examiner rebuts Aki claim
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
Murder defendant Christopher Aki's defense was dealt several setbacks in court yesterday, including testimony by Honolulu Medical Examiner Kanthi von Guenthner that a 40-pound rock could not have been the weapon used to kill 11-year-old Kahealani "Kahea" Indreginal in December 2002.
Von Guenthner stated repeatedly that the rock would "have crushed the girl's head" had it been dropped on her face five or six times from a waist-high position as the defense contends. Instead, the girl suffered only two broken bones and no skull fractures, von Guenthner said.
In addition, Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall denied requests by Aki's lawyer, state Deputy Public Defender Todd Eddins, to force Dennis Cacatian, whom Aki maintains is the real killer, to assert his constitutional right against self-incrimination in front of the jury.
Aki says he took the girl to a state park at the top of 'Aiea Heights Dec. 10, 2002, to confront Cacatian about accusations that Cacatian was touching the girl inappropriately. He testified on Wednesday that Cacatian became enraged, led the girl down a park path, stabbed her with a pocket knife, beat her with a pipe and hit her in the head with the rock at least five or six times.
The prosecution says Aki acted alone when he beat the girl to death with a pipe after having smoked a large amount of crystal methamphetamine the day before.
Eddins had hoped to call Cacatian, the dead girl's uncle, on Thursday. But before the jury was led into the courtroom, Eddins told Cacatian he planned to ask questions about Kahealani's death and Cacatian asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Yesterday, Eddins said it is essential to his defense of Aki that the jury see Cacatian "take the Fifth" in open court. Otherwise, jurors will be left wondering why the defense claimed someone else killed the girl and that person wasn't called as a witness.
But City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle said Hawai'i law does not require a witness to assert their Fifth Amendment rights in front of a jury.
Crandall ruled in favor of Carlisle, but she did not rule out the possibility of the jury being told before deliberations about Cacatian's decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment.
Crandall also ruled that Eddins could not use statements Cacatian is said to have made to police when they searched his home in February 2003. Eddins says that Cacatian told police that they weren't going to find the evidence they were looking for and that he made several references to "them" or "they," indicating Cacatian knew what evidence police were looking for and that more than one person was involved in killing the girl.
Eddins had also hoped to call Cacatian's brother, Eldefonso Cacatian, as a defense witness based on claims that Eldefonso told an investigator for the public defender's office that his brother Dennis confessed to him about killing the girl.
Eldefonso Cacatian voluntarily gave a statement to police last Saturday, which included allegations that Dennis Cacatian had a .40-caliber, semiautomatic handgun and a collection of pocket knives. But Eldefonso Cacatian was taken to The Queen's Medical Center this past Thursday suffering from what appears to be a drug overdose, is in a coma and is likely never to recover, Eddins said.
But Carlisle told the judge that statements by "someone who apparently overdosed on drugs" could not be deemed reliable or trustworthy and Crandall denied Eddins' request for a hearsay exemption.
Both sides are scheduled to give their closing arguments on Wednesday.
Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.
