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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, January 6, 2007

Prosecutors say notes were plan for murder

 •  PDF: See Adam Mau-Goffredo's handwritten notes

By Ken Kobayashi
Advertiser Courts Writer

Handwritten notes — which police say Adam Mau-Goffredo had with him in the robbery victims' stolen Jaguar when he was arrested — seem to schedule a death for just before 7 p.m. A little after 7 p.m. on July 6, witnesses called police.

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SCENE OF HOME INVASION: At this Round Top residence, Joseph and Francine Gedan were tied up by a gunman who then stole their car.

Advertiser library photo

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SCENE OF MURDERS: The lookout off Round Top Drive was empty the morning after three people were shot in the head there, and what seemed to be blood spatters were on the pavement.

Advertiser library photo

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A man accused of murdering a taxi driver and a Kapahulu couple at a Tantalus lookout and robbing a nearby home last year had handwritten notes with him outlining what prosecutors call "an apparent plan" to commit the crimes, according to court documents filed by prosecutors.

The prosecutors filed five pages of notes, written in a florid, calligraphic handwriting, listing a "time frame" for the death of the taxi driver of 6:45 to 7 p.m.

Witnesses called 911 about the shootings just after 7:15 p.m., police have said.

The handwritten notes, dated the day of the shootings and robbery, also refer to seizing a car on Tantalus and seizing a house.

The disclosure undermines initial reports that the grisly murders were an act of random violence. Instead, the notes suggest that a deeply disturbed Adam Mau-Goffredo had planned the attack on the taxi driver and the invasion of a Round Top Drive home that took place in the evening of July 6 last year.

Mau-Goffredo allegedly left the residence in a 2002 Jaguar belonging to one of the robbery victims, and police recovered a bag inside the car with the notes and Mau-Goffredo's identification when he was arrested about 8:20 p.m., according to court documents.

Mau-Goffredo, 24, is accused of murdering taxi driver Manh Nguyen, who drove him to Tantalus, and also murdering Jason and Colleen Takamori of Kapahulu. All three were shot in the head at close range.

The notes do not refer to the Kapahulu couple, who apparently were killed because they happened to be near the cab driver.

Mau-Goffredo is also accused of robbing the Round Top Drive home and driving away in the Jaguar before he was caught by police staking out the area.

COURT CHALLENGE

City prosecutors filed the handwritten notes as a prelude to a hearing before Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario on Wednesday on a defense request to throw out materials police recovered from Mau-Goffredo's 10th Avenue home. The defense contends the warrant authorizing the search was overly broad in violation of the defendant's constitutional rights.

Police recovered a wide range of materials, including CDs and DVDs, photographs and negatives, hardback and paperback books, more handwritten notes, bus schedules, a map of Honolulu, a cassette recorder and a newspaper titled Shotgun News, according to court papers.

'I GOD ... KING OF KINGS'

In response to the defense challenge, city prosecutors filed papers arguing that the search was justified based on an affidavit by a police detective who reported that the bag found in the Jaguar contained "notes of a plan to commit" the crimes.

Prosecutors described the handwritten notes as containing "an apparent plan to commit the instant crimes."

Brook Hart, one of Mau-Goffredo's defense lawyers, said that from the government's point of view, the notes might show "planning and rational thought inconsistent with serious mental illness."

But Hart said the notes are only a small part of the evidence in the case showing Goffredo-Mau was suffering from a delusion that he had to act to bring about Armageddon, the end of civilization.

The notes themselves also suggest evidence of the delusions, according to Hart.

At one point, the notes say: "...no compromises in Judgement & Settlement for U. S. U. N. ...Humanity from I God...King of Kings.."

"It's pretty delusional if you think you're God and the King of Kings," Hart said. "Adam was clearly deluded about his place in the world and what role he was playing in the world picture."

City deputy prosecutor Kevin Takata, who filed the prosecution's papers this week, declined to comment, citing ethical rules governing lawyers making public statements prior to the trial.

INSANITY ASSESSMENT

No trial date has been set for the criminal case, which still is in its early stages.

Mau-Goffredo's attorneys are expected to raise the insanity defense, but the attorneys and the judge are still trying to determine the scope of an examination by a court-appointed panel of three experts who would be evaluating Mau-Goffredo.

The panel is expected to be appointed after the hearing Wednesday.

Mau-Goffredo was transferred from the O'ahu Community Correctional Center to Halawa prison after he was accused of stabbing an OCCC guard in the eye with a pen and arrested in September. Mau-Goffredo has not been charged in that incident.

Hart said the incident encouraged the staff to "force medicate" his client.

"He's been taking medication and he's been responding to it," Hart said.

Mau-Goffredo is charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, firearm violations, first-degree burglary, first-degree robbery, kidnapping and theft.

Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.