Fatal crash, murder charges end Hawai'i couple's struggle

By Christie Wilson
Neighbor Island Editor

A Hawai'i couple who moved to California in search of a better life found they couldn't leave their troubles behind, and now the husband is facing a possible death sentence for allegedly killing his wife and two daughters.

Raye Rapoza and her daughter, Tehani, died after their family minivan plunged off a California cliff into the sea. Ann Mendoza photo

San Mateo County prosecutors allege that Eddie Rapoza purposely crashed the minivan in an apparent murder-suicide attempt that culminated years of jealous rages and verbal abuse against his wife, a 1986 Kamehameha Schools graduate who remained in close contact with family and friends on O'ahu and Maui.

Rapoza said it was an accident, that his foot became stuck between the accelerator and the brake pedal. He said police elicited a confession from him while he was in a hospital, seriously injured and addled from painkillers and other drugs.

Two women who were close to Raye Rapoza said they never saw evidence that Eddie Rapoza beat his wife, but he was frequently verbally abusive and threatened on more than one occasion to kill himself if she ever left him.

"He's always been a jealous and possessive guy, and when you throw drugs on top of that, things spun out of control," said Robin Pang, 38, Raye's older sister, who lives in Belmont, Calif.

History of complaints

Ann Mendoza, 36, of Kihei, Maui, said Raye Rapoza was like a sister to her, and they spoke on the phone almost daily. Mendoza said her friend endured years of marital strife because of a deep desire to keep the family together, and because she always held out hope that things would get better.

Two days before she died, Raye told Mendoza that her husband was accusing her of having an affair and claiming her unborn baby wasn't his.

Despite the continuing turmoil, "she was telling me that he was trying to change and they were trying to do more things together as a family," Mendoza said.

Eddie Rapoza and Raye Pang were high school sweethearts from Wai'anae. Raye was a boarder at Kamehameha Schools' Kapalama campus and Eddie attended Wai'anae High School.

In 1990, soon after marrying, the Rapozas moved to Maui, where Raye had an office job at Maui Memorial Medical Center and Eddie worked for a fencing company.

Mendoza, also from Wai'anae, moved to Maui a year later and lived within walking distance of her friend's house in Makawao.

"Like any marriage, they had their ups and downs," Mendoza said. Raye told her friend how Rapoza would frequently get upset at small things.

"She always said that he called her names that weren't very nice. There was lots of verbal abuse, but when I flat-out questioned her if she was afraid Eddie would hurt her, she said no ... but she was afraid he would hurt himself."

Raye Rapoza described the abuse — and foreshadowed her own death — in Maui court documents used to obtain a restraining order against her husband on Dec. 5, 1995.

She said her husband "is always verbally abusive every day ... He tells me I'm never leaving him and that he will kill me then kill himself before he lets me leave."

"When we argue he makes me sit and listen to him without letting me say what's on my mind. If I try to leave he restrains me, he will not let me call anyone," she stated.

"When we drive in the car and he gets upset, he drives recklessly, saying that if I don't shut up he will drive us both off a cliff."

Better times

The couple reconciled and in 1996 moved to California, where they lived with Pang and her husband for three years in Belmont before buying a condominium in nearby Foster City, south of San Francisco. Raye worked for Hewlett-Packard, and Rapoza was a welder at an engineering firm.

Eddie Rapoza, with daughter Tehani, was charged with the murders of his wife, daughter, and an 8-month-old fetus, after a confession he now says was extracted from him in the hospital while he was sedated. Ann Mendoza photo

Mendoza said Tehani excitedly spoke to her on the phone shortly before she died, about the two goals she had scored in soccer.

Pang said the Rapozas' relationship was "pretty stable" while living in a separate unit attached to their house, but once they got their own place, Eddie Rapoza became more volatile. Pang said her sister would stay with her during the roughest times. "They would get in wicked fights and she would call up crying," she said.

During a vacation to Maui in February 2002, Raye became upset that her husband wasn't spending enough time with his wife and child, Mendoza recalled. "The whole vacation time he was with friends. ... She wanted to do things as a family," she said.

On Feb. 6, 2002, Maui police arrested Rapoza for abuse after he reportedly pushed his wife and tried to grab car keys from her, cutting her hand.

While her husband was still in jail, Raye Rapoza returned to California. The abuse charge was later dismissed because Raye had left the state and did not want to pursue the case, according to John Tam of the Maui County Department of the Prosecuting Attorney.

When Raye moved in with her sister in April 2002, Rapoza threatened to harm Pang's family and said he would burn down her house if his wife didn't return home, Pang said. He also threatened to kill himself and was held for several hours for psychiatric evaluation at the San Mateo Medical Center, according to San Mateo County Deputy Sheriff Gary Ramos.

In late May or early June, Raye, pregnant with a second daughter who would be named Sienna, moved back in with her husband after he convinced her he had found God and was going to work hard to make their marriage better, according to Pang.

Blackout during crash

Rapoza, who is being held without bail at the Maguire Correctional Facility in Redwood City, told San Mateo's Daily Journal that on Oct. 6, 2002, the family drove to Moss Beach, north of Half Moon Bay, to watch the surf near Mavericks. He denied arguing with his wife, and said his foot became stuck under the brake pedal, preventing him from easing off the accelerator.

According to police reports, the car sped down Bernal Avenue and flew off a cliff, landing partially submerged in the ocean.

Rapoza told the newspaper he blacked out and doesn't remember the actual crash.

Raye Rapoza and Sienna died at the scene. Tehani was on life support for two days before being declared brain dead. Paternity testing conducted by the San Mateo District Attorney's Office confirmed that Rapoza was Sienna's father.

San Mateo County Deputy District Attorney Al Giannini said Rapoza said in a taped-recorded statement made while he was in Stanford Hospital that he had decided to kill himself by driving off the cliff, but that his wife refused to leave the minivan.

Ramos testified at a March 2003 preliminary hearing that Rapoza "said he decided he was going to drive off the cliff ... he said they were all going to die." The deputy sheriff also testified that Rapoza repeatedly accused his wife of being unfaithful, and that he admitted using marijuana and methamphetamine the night before the crash.

Rapoza's defense attorney, Jeff Boyarsky, said he plans to file motions to exclude the hospital confession from evidence because Rapoza was heavily sedated at the time, among other reasons.

Boyarsky said the defense had hired accident reconstruction experts and conducted tests that lend credibility to Rapoza's claim that he was unable to apply the brakes and stop the van from speeding off the cliff.

A trial date has not been set. Giannini said a decision on whether to pursue the death penalty because there are multiple murder counts would be made soon by District Attorney Jim Fox.

Raye Rapoza and her two daughters are buried at Ka'ahumanu Cemetery below Kamehameha Schools.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.