Posted at 12:27 p.m., Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Manslaughter verdict in Indreginal killing
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| Christoper Aki, left, faces up to 20 years in prison for the manslaughter conviction in the death of Kahealani Indreginal. He would have received life in prison if he had been convicted as charged with second-degree murder.
Advertiser library photos |
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Advertiser Staff
A Circuit Court jury today convicted Christopher Aki of manslaughter, rather than murder, in the beating death of 11-year-old Kahealani Indreginal at an 'Aiea Heights state park in December 2002.Aki faces a prison term of up to 20 years. He will be sentenced by Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall at a later date. Murder carries a mandatory life term with parole.
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| Christopher Aki, far left, held Kahealani's photo two days after the girl's disappearance as family members appealed for her return at the Pu'uwai Momi public housing complex in Halawa. Aki then was the boyfriend of Kahelani's older sister, Tanya Mamala-Tumbaga.
Advertiser library photo • Dec. 12, 2002 |
The jury returned the verdict after more than four days of deliberations. It received the case late last Wednesday.
Aki, 21, of Kalihi Valley, was charged with murdering Kahealani by intentionally or knowingly killing her. But the jury convicted Aki of the lesser manslaughter charge that he recklessly killed the girl.
Aki took the stand during the trial and denied killing the‘Aiea Elementary School sixth-grader and said Kahealani’s uncle, Dennis Cacatian, killed the girl after stabbing her and hitting her head with a 40-pound rock at least six times.
Cacatian invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to testify, but he had denied in the past that he killed the girl.
City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle maintained that Aki acted alone and cited Aki's own confession to police that he beat the girl with a pipe and left her to die.
Kahealani was last seen Dec. 10, 2002, near her family's apartment in the Pu'uwai Momi public housing complex in Halawa. Her disappearance triggered a massive search, but her beaten and badly decomposed body was found off the 'Aiea Loop Trail three days later.
