Big Island man will get two years after pleading guilty to shooting death of son
By John Burnett
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
HILO — A 61-year-old Leilani Estates man admitted Monday to shooting his 27-year-old son to death.
Randal K. "Randy" Randrup pleaded guilty in Hilo Circuit Court to manslaughter for the Dec. 11, 2008, shooting death of Hans Christian "Chris" Randrup, whose nude body was found wrapped in a blanket the following day at the bottom of a cliff at MacKenzie State Park in Lower Puna.
Police said that Chris Randrup, a noted bodysurfer, had been shot eight times in the chest and abdomen with a small-caliber firearm.
The elder Randrup had originally been charged with second-degree murder, plus use of a firearm in the commission of a separate felony and failure to register the firearm within five days after acquisition.
Circuit Judge Glenn Hara said he will follow the prosecutors' recommendation to sentence Randy Randrup to two years imprisonment, with credit for time served, plus 10 years probation. Sentencing is set for Oct. 27.
Randy Randrup is in custody in Hawaii Community Correctional Center in lieu of $1 million bail.
Randrup appeared in court in a wheelchair. Police had issued an all-points bulletin for him after finding Chris Randrup's body. On Dec. 15, police learned that Randy Randrup was hospitalized at The Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu. He had sustained multiple injuries Dec. 13 after crashing his 1968 Volkswagen van on Hawaii Belt Road in Captain Cook.
"My son was beating me up," Randy Randrup told the court. "I got away from him and got my rifle and pointed it at him and pulled the trigger."
"Did you cause his death?" Hara asked.
"I did," Randrup said.
No murder weapon was found. Police say they believe Randy Randrup threw the firearm, a .22-caliber long rifle, into the ocean. Deputy Prosecutor Darien Ching Nagata said Randrup bought three guns at a Leilani Estates yard sale two to three months before the shooting.
About a dozen friends and relatives of Chris Randrup reacted with shock and dismay when the judge indicated he would go along with the prosecution's recommendation. Two friends of Chris Randrup stormed out of the courtroom shouting expletives with court still in session.
Asked why the deal was struck, Nagata refused to go into specifics.
"In all cases, we look at the facts of the case and the admissible evidence," she said. "We try to come to a resolution based on that."
Asked if there was any evidence to support Randy Randrup's allegations that his son beat him, fellow Deputy Prosecutor Mike Kagami said, "When Mr. Randrup was found he had been in a wreck."
Sue Tompkins, the sister of Chris Randrup's mother, Lois, said that after police turned the case over to prosecutors, the investigation stopped.
"None of Chris' friends, none of us were talked to," Tompkins said. "They talked to my sister a little bit, but I think after Detective Rio (Amon-Wilkins) gave it to them, it all stopped. It became all lawyers behind closed doors."
Tompkins said there is a great deal of outrage among the younger of Randrup's friends and relatives.
"We are livid," she said. "(Randy Randrup) admitted everything that he did to Chris. He admitted that he stripped him, transported him, dumped him. The sentence could be up to 20 years. But two years? We're not so concerned that they call it manslaughter or murder, it's the time. He intended for us never to know where Chris was. ... Basically, I believe they needed a videotape of the murder in order for them to have took it to court.
"They said that if they took it to court, he would have been acquitted. They have physical evidence. I just don't get it."