Jury rules out murder, opts for manslaughter
| • | Verdict is no comfort for Kahealani's mom |
By David Waite and Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writers
The trial of Christopher Aki came to a stunning end yesterday when a jury rejected a murder conviction and found him guilty of the lesser offense of manslaughter for beating 11-year-old Kahealani "Kahea" Indreginal to death.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
The manslaughter conviction means Aki faces a prison term of no more than 20 years versus the mandatory sentence of life with the possibility of parole that goes with a second-degree murder conviction.
Christopher Aki, who contends another man was the killer, hears the verdict delivered in Circuit Court.
After more than four days of jury deliberations, the verdict was read at about noon in Circuit Court as Aki sat with his hands clamped together, staring stoically at the judge. He bowed his head slightly as the manslaughter verdict was announced.
Aki's lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Todd Eddins, patted Aki on the back before he was led away.
"We're gratified Chris was acquitted of the murder charge but a young man has been convicted of a crime he didn't commit," Eddins said. "The prosecution of Chris botched any attempt to find the real killer. They (the prosecution and police) put all their eggs in one basket and blew it."
Eddins said he plans to ask for probation when Aki is sentenced at 9:30 a.m. July 12 by Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall, who presided over the four-week trial. Aki remains in custody in lieu of $5 million bail.
City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle, who tried the case himself, said he wasn't "100 percent pleased with the verdict," but said he will ask for the maximum 20-year sentence.
• Aki, who is being held in lieu of $5 million bail, will be sentenced by Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall on July 12. • City prosecutors will ask for a maximum 20-year prison term. • Aki's defense will ask for probation.
Aki, 21, was accused of one of the island's most sensational crimes following the disappearance of Kahealani, a sixth-grader at 'Aiea Elementary School, on Dec. 10, 2002. After a frantic search by neighbors, police and others, her body was discovered by a hiker three days later off the 'Aiea Loop Trail.
What's next
Aki gave several statements to police, first blaming others, then confessing to the slaying. But at the trial, Aki recanted the confession, denied killing Kahealani and said the killer was her uncle, Dennis Cacatian, who refused to testify.
Carlisle, however, pointed to Aki's confession and maintained Aki acted alone in killing the girl in a drug-induced rage a day after smoking crystal methamphetamine with two of his friends.
By convicting Aki of manslaughter, the jury found that Aki "recklessly" killed Kahealani. The panel rejected the murder verdict that he intentionally or knowingly killed her.
The seven men and five women left the courthouse without meeting Eddins or Carlisle to explain how they arrived at the manslaughter verdict. Several jurors refused to comment.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
With the confession and DNA evidence from the girl's blood in Aki's car, Carlisle said he believed he had a strong circumstantial case. But he said he understood why the jury came up with the manslaughter verdict. "I think he got lucky because no one saw him up there doing what he did," Carlisle said of Aki.
Karen Garo, foreground, and Lori Moreno, aunts of Kahealani Indreginal, said they were disappointed with the verdict until they spoke privately with the prosecutor and learned that the manslaughter verdict did not mean Christopher Aki did not kill the girl.
The fact that Kahealani's body was abandoned — making forensic evidence difficult to come by — allowed for a well-tailored defense and the possibility of a lesser verdict, he said.
"The one thing (Aki) never wanted to give up was why he did it," Carlisle said. "I would have preferred it (a murder verdict) but I'm not wildly disappointed."
Eddins, however, stood by the assertions he made during the trial that Cacatian was the real killer.
The trial left room for appeal, Eddins said, because Cacatian exercised his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and did so while the jury was out of the courtroom. Judge Crandall told the jury only that Cacatian was unavailable to be called as a witness by either side.
Eddins said he never got the chance to ask Cacatian questions under oath.
Federal Assistant Public Defender Michael Weight, who represented Cacatian in a federal criminal case having to do with a firearms violation, said Cacatian and his family have been "devastated" by the girl's death and the continuing accusations that Cacatian had something to do with it.
April 13: Trial opens with city Prosecutor Peter Carlisle giving the jury a grisly account of Christoper Aki beating 11-year-old Kahealani Indreginal with a metal pipe and leaving her at a state park above 'Aiea Heights to die. Deputy Public Defender Todd Eddins says Kahealani's uncle, Dennis Cacatian, was the murderer. April 14: Jury listens to taped interview of Aki telling detectives he did not hurt Kahealani. In taped statements played later for the jury, Aki blames others for the murder before he finally confesses. On the tape, Aki says he took Kahealani to the state park. The two were eating and Aki accidentally spit on the girl, Aki says. Kahealani slapped him and Aki says he just "snapped." Aki says he then beat her with the pipe, despite her plea for him to stop. He also says he smoked crystal methamphetamine a day earlier. April 22: Charlotte Ward of Orchid Cellmark laboratory in Germantown, Md., testifies that blood samples taken from Aki's car match that of Kahealani. April 23: The jury is shown a 40-pound blood-stained rock that the defense says was used by Cacatian to kill Kahealani. A California lab concludes that analysis of the blood shows that Kahealani cannot be ruled out as the source of the DNA found on the rock. April 28: Aki takes the stand and testifies that he saw Cacatian stab Kahealani, beat her with a pipe and smash her face repeatedly with the rock. April 29: Cacatian is listed as a defense witness, but tells Crandall he is invoking his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and won't answer any questions. Crandall denies a defense request that Cacatian invoke his right in front of the jury. May 5: Closing arguments. The jury starts deliberating. Yesterday: The jury rejects a murder verdict and convicts Aki on the lesser offense of manslaughter.
"Dennis is the blood uncle — it was his sister's daughter who was killed — and his name has been dragged through the mud time and time again," Weight said.
Aki trial highlights
Claims that Cacatian smashed the girl's face and head with a rock were not substantiated by the trial testimony, Weight said.
"The rock was the guts of the defense story — this was their smoking gun," Weight said.
But city Medical Examiner Kanthi von Guenthner insisted repeatedly that the rock could not have been the murder weapon, Weight said.
Carlisle said the state's ice epidemic played a major role in the case.
"We can't ever overstate the ice problem, regardless of who you believe in this case," he said. "People that are not typically violent can do the worst on this drug."
Yesterday marked the second time in six months that a jury has returned a guilty verdict on a charge less substantial than the one sought by prosecutors. In December, Shane Mark was found guilty of second-degree murder, instead of first-degree, in the shooting of police officer Glen Gaspar in Kapolei in March 2003.
Carlisle said there is "nothing unusual" about a jury returning a lesser verdict than what was sought by the prosecution. "The state has the burden of proving things beyond a reasonable doubt," he said.
In the Aki case, the defense had more than a year to look at all the prosecution's evidence and come up with a strategy, Carlisle said, but his office learned only shortly before the trial began about defense claims that Cacatian killed the girl and that the rock was the murder weapon.
Only the jurors in the case know why they chose a manslaughter verdict, he said.
"They didn't want to talk to me (afterward) and I'm not going to force myself on them," Carlisle said.
Steve Drizin, a law school professor at Northwestern University in Chicago who tracked the Aki case, called yesterday's outcome a "compromise verdict" that suggested either "the defense did an admirable job" or the jury did not view the "confession as the absolute truth of what happened."
"Clearly, the jury did not believe it was an intentional murder and they did not believe the theory put forward by the defense, either," Drizin said.
Karen Garo and Lori Moreno, sisters of Kahealani's father, Vincent Indreginal, were in court yesterday for the verdict.
Both were disappointed until they spoke privately with Carlisle. Garo said she changed her opinion when she learned that the manslaughter verdict does not mean Aki didn't kill her niece.
"Nothing will bring Kahea back," Garo said. "But at least now there's some closure for the family.
Advertiser staff writers Rod Ohira and Will Hoover contributed to this report.
Reach Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030 and Peter Boylan at 535-8110 or pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com
