Police charged a 23-year-old man yesterday with a triple homicide on Tantalus and subsequent Round Top home invasion. His bail was set at $25 million.

The bail is more than three times the bond given a former Xerox employee who killed seven of his co-workers in 1999.

Adam Mau-Goffredo was charged with one count of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder, eight firearms violations, one count of first-degree burglary, one count of first-degree robbery, three counts of first-degree kidnapping and one count of theft.

He is being held at the Honolulu police cellblock on Alapa'i Street.

If convicted of the first-degree murder charge (for killing more than one person) Mau-Goffredo would spend his life in prison with no possibility of parole. Each second-degree murder charge carries a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole.

The other 14 charges carry a range of maximum sentences, from five years for a firearms violation to 20 years each for kidnapping.

Killed at the Tantalus lookout near the summit of Round Top Drive on Thursday night were taxi driver Manh Nguyen, 50, of Waikiki; and Jason and Colleen Takamori, both 53, of Kapahulu, who were taking pictures of the city lights with a new digital camera.

The shootings happened about 7:15 p.m. Police found Nguyen's body on the asphalt. Colleen Takamori was discovered inside the couple's Toyota Corolla, and Jason Takamori was found outside the car. He died at The Queen's Medical Center.

After shooting the three, police said, the suspect drove Nguyen's brown minivan taxi up Round Top Drive to the home of Francine and Joseph M. Gedan, a former U.S. magistrate judge for the district of Hawai'i. Police said Mau-Goffredo bound the couple's hands and feet with tape. The couple's housekeeper also was tied up, and all three were threatened.

Court documents released yesterday said Mau-Goffredo threatened to kill Francine Gedan and pointed a gun at Joseph Gedan's head, telling him he "would kill him if he made any moves to resist." Mau-Goffredo then allegedly took money from Francine Gedan's purse, and disabled two phone lines and two cell phones before turning off the lights and leaving the house.

He fled in the couple's green Jaguar but was intercepted by police about 8:20 p.m. near the intersection of Tantalus and Makiki Heights drives. Police said that when Mau-Goffredo drove toward the checkpoint he was in the wrong lane, apparently to try to bypass the police.

Police stopped the vehicle at gunpoint and ordered Mau-Goffredo out of the car.

In a body search of Mau-Goffredo, they found a loaded magazine for a .45-caliber pistol in his left front pocket, according to court documents.

Mau-Goffredo's initial appearance in District Court is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. tomorrow. His bail was set by Judge Barbara Richardson, according to a prosecutor's office news release.

By comparison, bail for Xerox shooter Byran Uyesugi was set at $7 million.

DETAILS OF KIDNAPPING

The court documents released revealed details about what happened after Mau-Goffredo allegedly fled from the Tantalus lookout. The papers said Francine Gedan saw a taxi mini-van pull into her driveway in the 3700 block of Round Top Drive around 7:15 p.m. on Thursday and met Mau-Goffredo, who was driving the vehicle, at the door.

Mau-Goffredo "asked her if it was Jacob's house," the documents said, then he pulled out a gun and forced his way in. By the time Mau-Goffredo had tied Gedan's hands and feet with plastic mailing tape, her husband had come home. Mau-Goffredo was walking out of Gedan's bedroom when he ran into her husband, Joseph Gedan, in the kitchen.

Court documents said Mau-Goffredo pointed a handgun at Gedan and threatened to kill him "if he made any moves or resists." Then, as Mau-Goffredo was leaving the home, he ran into his third victim, police said. Patti Denman, the Gedans' housekeeper, was walking over from her home to check on the couple after hearing about the shooting at the lookout.

She saw Mau-Goffredo in the garage and also spotted Nguyen's taxi in the driveway. She rushed to the house and Mau-Goffredo followed her, court documents said.

The suspect "then grabbed her by the arm and told her that he would have to tie her up," according to the papers. Denman was tied up in the den. Mau-Goffredo then told Denman "not to move or he would shoot her."

'A GOOD MAN'

Nguyen, the taxi driver, lived in a second-story apartment at Kalakaua Homes in Waikiki.

His family asked for their privacy yesterday, but neighbors remembered Nguyen as a dedicated husband and father of two children. "He was a good man," said Wallace Le, a taxi driver at The Cab who also lives at the 221-unit public housing project on Kalakaua Avenue.

Nguyen immigrated to Hawai'i from Vietnam about 25 years ago and still has family — including a brother and a sister — in the country, Le said. He returned to Vietnam just last year for his father's funeral, and now his relatives are deciding where to bury him, he added.

Le, who met the driver in the early 1990s, said he remembers Nguyen traipsing to the beach with his children and wife on weekends or happily chatting with neighbors.

Phil Tran, another taxi driver who lives at the complex and befriended Nguyen, said the victim was devoted to his family. "All the family was very nice," said Tran, who tried to console Nguyen's widow when he heard about the shooting. "He never made any trouble."

Both Le and Tran, who recently retired, said taxi driving is a dangerous business and assaults against cabbies are far too common. Tran said he never told his wife about combative or threatening passengers, not wanting her to worry. "I never wanted my family to know the danger," Tran said.

Le added that there's nothing that can be done. He said on several occasions his passengers have cheated him out of fare or threatened him.

"What can you do?" he said. "Just drive home."

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.