Court hears of abuse, escape
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawai'i — A Puna woman yesterday described in court how she devised a scheme to help a 19-year-old woman escape from a man who allegedly subjected her to beatings and sexual abuse and held her prisoner for more than a month.
Gladys Hinau, 54, testified that she intervened to get the 19-year-old away from Ernest Horcajo III after she heard stories from acquaintances that Horcajo had been beating the woman.
Hinau's testimony yesterday came during a preliminary hearing for Horcajo, who is charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, two counts of second-degree assault and four counts of first-degree sexual assault in the case.
Horcajo's 19-year-old girlfriend had bruises all over her body and was taken to Hilo Medical Center Dec. 1 with life-threatening injuries that included six broken ribs, a broken nose, a broken jaw and a ruptured spleen and kidney, according to court records.
Horcajo is accused of beating the woman with a golf club and a pipe as well as repeatedly sexually assaulting her. He is being held at Hawai'i Community Correctional Center in lieu of $104,000 bail.
Hinau testified Horcajo and his 19-year-old girlfriend had been living in a tent outside Hinau's house in Ainaloa Estates subdivision since late November, and said Horcajo's father and stepmother were also staying on Hinau's property.
Hinau said Horcajo never left the 19-year-old woman alone, even accompanying her to the bathroom inside Hinau's house. She also testified the woman always allowed her hair to fall over her face so that Hinau never got a good look at her features.
Hinau said she became concerned about the woman after acquaintances in Pana'ewa told Hinau that Horcajo had been abusing the woman. Hinau said she questioned Horcajo's stepmother, who became hysterical describing how Horcajo beat the 19-year-old.
In the confrontation that followed, Hinau said Horcajo warned her that "if you call the cops, you're dead meat," she said. "I realized by the look in his eyes that we're in trouble."
Hinau testified she and Horcajo apologized to each other and hugged, and she let the matter drop.
On Dec. 1 Hinau testified she persuaded Horcajo to go to Hinau's friend's house in Hawaiian Paradise Park to work in the friend's yard, and to leave the 19-year-old woman at Hinau's house. Hinau then told Horcajo she had to go to the bank to get cash, and left the Paradise Park house.
Hinau then went home, where she told the 19-year-old woman that "it's now or never."
"She said, 'Yes, get me out of here, he's going to kill me,' " Hinau testified.
From Ainaloa, Hinau said she drove to the Pahoa police substation, where police asked the 19-year-old to undress to allow officers to photograph her injuries.
The woman stripped down to a bathing suit under her clothes, and "we all stopped to look at her," Hinau testified. "I couldn't see one quarter of an inch that was not bruised, her whole body."
Hinau's testimony is scheduled to resume Monday in Hilo District Court.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.
