Trial begins in 'Aiea shooting
By Ken Kobayashi
Advertiser Courts Writer
The credibility of a robber who became a prosecution witness will be a key factor in a trial that opened yesterday for three defendants. The three are accused of fatally shooting a 49-year-old man in an 'Aiea garage five days before Halloween 2003.
A deputy city prosecutor told the Circuit Court jury yesterday that Kevin K. Harris confessed as the fourth man who planned to rob the 'Aiea home and said the three defendants were the masked gunmen who shot Greg Morishima.
Deputy Prosecutor Lucianne Khalaf said Morishima told the masked men, "It's too early for Halloween," then laughed. That's when the gunmen fired the shots, then fled, Khalaf said.
But defense attorneys countered that the prosecution's case hinges solely on the testimony of Harris. They accused him of lying to deflect blame from himself and the real gunmen.
"The evidence will not show that the people under the masks were the defendants," said Richard Hoke, defense attorney for Micah Kanahele.
Kanahele, Rosalino Ramos and Jason B. Rumbawa, each 24, are accused as the masked men in what was described as a cold-blooded murder that stunned the community as yet another example of violence associated with drugs.
Morishima was in the garage sitting on a car seat at the Pamoho Place home he was visiting when he was fatally shot in the abdomen.
Kanahele faces another murder trial on charges accusing him of slaying one man and wounding another in the parking lot of a Pearl City shopping center just six days after the 'Aiea shooting. He is accused of fatally shooting Guylan Nuuhiwa and wounding Winston Domingo in connection with what police described as a drug ripoff.
That trial is set to start after Kanahele's current murder trial.
In her opening statement yesterday, Khalaf said Harris was with the defendants who had earlier gone to two other 'Aiea homes in aborted attempts to rob drug houses that night before Kanahele directed them to the Pamoho Place home.
She said Harris had a shotgun, but stopped near a bush because he didn't have a mask and wanted to pull his T-shirt over his face when he heard Morishima's remark about Halloween. Harris saw the three defendants fire at the victim, Khalaf said.
Also on trial is Anthony K. Brown, 24, charged only with armed robbery as the driver of the getaway sport utility vehicle.
The defense attorneys for all four said they would ask for acquittals. The lawyers for Rumbawa and Brown also said the two were Heald College students studying for an exam the next day at a Salt Lake home at the time of the shooting.
Harris, 27, has pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery related to the 'Aiea and Pearl City parking lot shootings and agreed to serve a maximum 10-year term.
Reach Ken Kobayashi at 525-8030 or kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.
