Prosecutor says child's word may not convict
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
Getting a murder conviction based on the testimony of a 5-year-old witness — even one who claimed to have seen a dead body — presents problems that may be impossible to avoid, said the Big Island prosecutor assigned to the case of Peter Boy Kema.
"The statement only gives you that he is dead, at its best," said Mike Kagami, a Hawai'i County deputy prosecutor. "It doesn't give you who caused the death, what was the state of mind of the person at the time. Was it intentional or a reckless, negligent act?
Peter Boy
"I wouldn't be able to prosecute on that statement alone."
Exactly what happened to the missing child-abuse victim, who has not been seen since mid-1997, remains a mystery.
But the disclosure Tuesday that his sister said she saw his dead body makes the girl the only eyewitness ever identified.
The sister told a psychologist in June 1998 that she saw Peter Boy "dead in her father's car trunk." The girl, who was 5 at the time, also told the psychologist that she saw "Peter Boy in a box 'dead' in her parents' closet and they took the box to Honolulu."
The sister's account was part of 2,000 pages of confidential documents released by the state Department of Human Services.
Kagami said prosecutors have long been familiar with the sister's account, but said that the age of the child at the time could derail any attempt to convict someone.
"She may have been 2 or 3 when she saw that," he said. "That will play into how you evaluate that statement. I am sure a 2-year-old's statement will be viewed differently than a 24-year-old's."
But Steven J. Choy, the psychologist who interviewed Peter Boy's sister in 1998, disagrees. He said in an interview yesterday that he felt the girl was credible and that he explained this to authorities in 1998.
The memories of children 3 and younger often present problems but that isn't the case for an older child, Choy said yesterday. Studies have proven this, he said.
"The report does say it was credible enough for further investigation," Choy said. "You cannot say it is just fantasy. It was credible enough given her cognitive abilities, how she presented her information."
The child's stock also rose in his estimation when she told him about her good relationship with Peter Sr., her father, Choy said.
"When you love someone and say some of these things that are pretty bad, the credibility is much higher in those cases," he said.
Human services officials had asked Choy to interview the entire Kema family — the sister, two older siblings and their parents, Peter Sr. and Jaylin — after concerns were raised about Peter Boy's disappearance. A clinical psychologist with the Kapiolani Child Protection Center, Choy has specialized in child-abuse evaluations since 1978.
Choy interviewed the children on the first day of a two-day trip to the Big Island. He said he was not prepared for their answers.
"I had a hard time sleeping that night," he said. "I could not imagine what those kids may have gone through. It was horrifying to me, even after years and years of hearing numerous cases."
Peter Boy disappeared sometime in the spring or early summer of 1997 amid suspicious circumstances. He would have turned 6 that May. His father claimed to have given him away to an old family friend whose existence has never been confirmed by authorities. It was not until January 1998, however, that his mother filed a missing person's report with Big Island police.
Human services director Lillian Koller said yesterday she doesn't know why an "eyewitness account" of Peter Boy's dead body has not resulted in criminal prosecution.
"I did not understand why just because this witness was of a tender age, that would mean you couldn't go with it," Koller said.
Koller said that information left her stunned — partly because it existed and partly because it had been kept confidential for years.
"That was incredible to me that after eight years nobody knew there was an eyewitness account of Peter Boy dead," she said.
Koller released the confidential files — many of them pertaining to an earlier child-abuse investigation — in the hope that they will prompt witnesses to come forward.
An attorney, Koller said that the law-enforcement community has a duty to educate the public. Without naming a suspect, she called the Kema case a good example.
"What is criminal is not acceptable," Koller said. "When you attempt to prosecute someone there is value there. You may lose the case but you have shown the community that if you engage in this kind of behavior, we will consider it unacceptable."
And it should fall to a jury to decide if words of a little girl are believable, she said.
"Every single day in courtrooms, credibility is judged," Koller said. "Competing evidence is weighed. Someone makes decisions on whether they believe it or they don't. That is normal. That is how our judicial system is set up."
Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.
