honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, July 2, 2009

Killer gets 2 life sentences


By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Convicted murderer Darnell Griffin stood and spoke to family members of his victim, Evelyn Luka, yesterday in court before he was sentenced for her murder. Luka's brother, Maj. James Morimoto, is in the gallery, at left.

BRUCE ASATO | The Honolulu Advertiser

spacer spacer
Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Evelyn Luka

spacer spacer

"The jury has spoken. Justice was finally served. It was delayed but it was not denied."

Leilani Tan | a prosecutor in the Griffin case

spacer spacer

Convicted murderer Darnell Griffin was sentenced yesterday to consecutive life terms in prison for murdering a second young woman while on parole in 1999.

Insisting that he was guilty only of adultery, Griffin admitted having sex with the victim, Evelyn Luka, but contended that he was at home with his wife when Luka was attacked.

"I wasn't the guy," Griffin told relatives of Evelyn Luka in court yesterday. "I wasn't there that night."

Griffin was convicted in April of murdering Luka largely on the basis of DNA evidence collected from the victim in 1999 that was matched in 2007 to a DNA sample obtained from him by his parole officer.

Griffin was convicted in 1982 of murdering another young woman, Lynn Gheradi, in 1980 and was paroled from state prison in March 1996.

Griffin, 50, did not testify during the Luka murder trial, but yesterday repeated his defense attorney's argument that he had sex with Luka two nights before she was assaulted and left for dead on the side of H-2 Freeway.

Luka, 20, was found barely alive the morning of Sept. 6, 1999. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled and died the following month.

Luka's brother, Air Force Maj. James Morimoto, was in court and called Griffin "a waste of space."

Morimoto told Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario that he "fully endorsed" a sentence of life without parole but only because the death penalty is not available in Hawai'i.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Takata called Griffin "a man compelled to satisfy his lust at any cost" and said he must never be released from prison.

"I've never seen a case like this," Takata said.

His colleague in prosecuting Griffin, Leilani Tan, said she was "disgusted with what Mr. Griffin had to say" in court.

"The jury has spoken. Justice was finally served. It was delayed but it was not denied," Tan said.

Griffin told the courtroom that he had been railroaded by prosecutors who had little evidence against him other than the DNA match.

"The prosecutor has done a better job of a magic act than a magician, I think," Griffin said.

No witnesses who last saw Luka leaving a Kapi'olani Boulevard nightclub with a black man driving a dark SUV could identify Griffin at trial as the man they saw, Griffin said.

Del Rosario twice admonished Griffin to address his comments to the judge and not to Luka's family members. Without comment, the judge sentenced him to serve back-to-back life terms behind bars without the possibility of parole.

According to court records, a state sex offender specialist warned before Griffin was paroled in 1996 that he was a dangerous sexual predator whose movements should be closely monitored after he left prison.

The warning, issued in January 1996 by Barry Coyne, virtually predicted the way in which prosecutors later said Griffin met and attacked Luka on Sept. 6, 1999.

"Mr. Griffin was called to my attention as a potential sex offender by parole officer Edwin Uyehara," Coyne wrote.

"I share Mr. Uyehara's concern," Coyne wrote.

"Mr. Griffin was convicted of murder, based upon his prior stalking the victim and her belongings found in his possession," the memo continued.

"Because he meets female tourists in nightclubs, I recommend that he not be allowed access to Waikiki, Kaka'ako, Ke'eaumoku, Downtown or other areas where nightclubs operate," Coyne said.

"A 9 p.m. curfew should further limit his access to new victims. And polygraphs will help maintain and verify his compliance to the parole contact," the memo concluded.

Hawai'i Paroling Authority officials said that Griffin remained under "intensive supervision" through December 1996.

That program imposed a 9 p.m. curfew and Griffin was subjected once to a polygraph examination, in November 1996, according to the HPA.

As of 1997, Griffin was transferred to general parole status, which included an 11 p.m. curfew and instructions not to consume alcohol or visit premises where alcohol is served.