More than five years ago, as Lepo Utu Taliese lay dying on the 18th fairway of the Pali golf course, he named Rodney Joseph Jr. and Ethan Motta as the men who had shot him. Yesterday, a federal court jury found Joseph and Motta guilty of that murder and a wide-ranging array of other offenses, including racketeering, gambling, extortion and armed robbery.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Flo Nakakuni called the verdict "a message to Hawai'i organized crime that you can't remain below the radar."

Taliese's brother Moevao Utu, who attended every day of the monthlong trial, said he was "overwhelmed about the verdict" and his sister, Faletolu Lauti, said she was sorry for members of the Joseph and Motta families "but nobody has the right to kill someone."

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Oki Mollway set sentencing for July 6.

Mollway last year refused to approve a plea deal that Motta, Joseph and a third defendant, Kevin "Pancho" Gonsalves, had reached with the government in which they agreed to plead guilty in return for sentences of up to 27 1/2 years behind bars.

Mollway said in rejecting the deal that she didn't think the defendants had provided enough cooperation with the government to qualify for anything less than life sentences.

Gonsalves later pleaded guilty to slightly modified charges brought by the government and Mollway sentenced him earlier to 27 1/2 years in prison.

Motta's Honolulu lawyer, Walter Rodby, said outside court that he and co-counsel Charles Carnesi of New York plan to appeal the case and feel their chances of overturning the verdict are very good.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard a case that challenged the wording of jury instructions given to juries in racketeering cases tried in Hawai'i and other courts in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Rodby said.

He said he believes the high court will rule that the jury instruction language used by Mollway and other judges in the 9th Circuit is unconstitutional and that means the convictions of Motta of Joseph would be set aside.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Brady, who prosecuted the case here, was traveling on the East Coast yesterday but Nakakuni said of Rodby's comments, "That's his view of the law, but we believe that we have a very strong case on appeal."

Elizabeth Motta, mother of Ethan Motta, reiterated her belief in her son's innocence and said she has faith that he will be exonerated.

Joseph family members and defense attorney Reginald Minn were not available for comment after the verdict.

Carnesi, Motta's principal lawyer, had to return to the East Coast Thursday and was unavailable for comment.

Joseph and Motta were arrested by Honolulu police just hours after Taliese, Romilius Corpuz Jr. and Tinoimalu Sao were gunned down in a blaze of gunfire that began in the golf course parking lot and moved into the facility's clubhouse area.

Shocked golfers and course workers ducked for cover as .380-caliber bullet fragments smashed the windows of the pro shop and felled Corpuz outside the starter's office.

Taliese, mortally wounded with four gunshots to the back, ran through the clubhouse and down the side of the 18th fairway, finally collapsing as members of a ground crew and later police officers and emergency technicians attended to him.

UNDERWORLD EMPIRE

In a dying declaration, Taliese named Joseph and Motta as his assailants, witnesses testified in the trial.

Tino Sao, who was shot with a silenced, .22-caliber pistol fired by Motta, survived his near-fatal wounds and returned to testify against Motta and Joseph.

Sao acknowledged, as did many other witnesses in the case, that the shooting was driven by friction between rival underworld groups providing protection to illegal gambling games in Hawai'i.

Joseph, 41, did not take the witness stand in the trial, but Motta, 40, testified at length, telling the jury that he was not involved in the gambling business and only shot Sao and Taliese in self-defense.

Under cross examination from prosecutor Brady, Motta scoffed at suggestions from other witnesses that he was intent on recapturing an underworld empire once headed by his "hanai" father, Charles "Charley" Stevens of Wai'anae.

Stevens died in federal prison in 1999 while serving time for his own federal racketeering conviction.

Co-defendant Joseph is a nephew of Stevens.

Jonnaven Monalim, a cousin of both defendants, testified as a prosecution witness in the trial, saying he had been secretly cooperating with the FBI since 2004.