Gun found in Manoa could be missing weapon in Kalihi shooting
Police are conducting lab tests on a handgun recovered at a Manoa residence yesterday which may have been taken from the scene of an early morning New Year's Day shooting in Kalihi.Police seized a silver-color Jennings .22-caliber semiautomatic which matches the description of a handgun witnesses say Benedict "Tiki" Manupule was armed with at Mayor Wright Housing when he was fatally shot by an off-duty officer, identified by police as Teneri Maafala.
Information obtained by Crime Reduction Unit officers from Central Honolulu and Kalihi and the police Gang Detail led investigators to the Manoa home at 8 a.m.
Tests are being conducted to determine if shell casings recovered at the scene were fired from the gun.
"If we can tie the weapon to Manupule, it would speed up our conferring with the prosecutors," said Lt. Greg Poole, of Internal Affairs. "It would also corroborate witness statements that he was armed."
Capt. Doug Miller, of the Criminal Investigation Division, said the special units obtained information about the gun by "tracking back and identifying people at the scene and associates of Manupule."
Police, meanwhile, are trying to keep a lid on bad feelings between rival Samoan and Tongan groups in the aftermath of the shooting.
Manupule, a Tongan, was a resident of Kuhio Valley Homes, while Maafala is of Samoan ancestry and was at Mayor Wright visiting relatives on the morning of the shooting.
Rodriguez confessed; Army assumes jurisdiction
The Schofield Barracks soldier suspected of killing his wife has confessed to the slaying, police said.Military officials said Army Sgt. Jose Luis Rodriguez, 27, was turned over yesterday to the custody of the military police.
Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Peter Carlisle has agreed to let the Army handle the homicide case.
Carlisle said the Army's Office of Staff Judge Advocate sent a letter to Carlisle yesterday requesting the case because the alleged offense occurred at Schofield Barracks, the defendant is an active-duty soldier, and several key witnesses are in the military or military family members.
Maj. Maritza Ryan, chief counsel of the law division of the Staff Judge Advocate's Office, visited Carlisle yesterday to ask for the case.
"They feel prosecution of the case is extremely important to the Army command and Schofield community," Carlisle said. "The policy of my office has been to cooperate with other law-enforcement agencies, and the decision was made in the spirit of long-standing mutual assistance with the Army.
"We discussed only those factors (the Army) presented and the types of sentences awarded," Carlisle added.
"It was my impression the most likely sentences were equitable (with the state)."
Capt. Rob Rooker, spokesman for the 25th Infantry Division, confirmed that the Army has taken custody of Jose Luis Rodriguez, who has not yet been charged with any crime, from Honolulu police.
Homicide detectives were prepared to seek charges before the case was turned over to the Army.
The body of Rodriguez' 22-year-old wife, Angela, was found in the family car at about 1:30 a.m. Monday at Pu'u O Mahuka Heiau in Pupukea. He had called police about an hour earlier to report he and his wife had been kidnapped and robbed. He said he managed to escape.
The condition of her body, however, indicated she had been killed earlier, said homicide Lt. Allen Napoleon.
The military has a death penalty for murder, but Carlisle said that "was irrelevant to my decision."
Suspect will be tested for disorder
Accused killer Frank Charles Janto is scheduled to undergo diagnostic tests tomorrow to determine if he has a convulsive disorder, his attorney says.But Janto's murder trial is still set to begin next week, depending on the test results, said William Bento, Deputy Public Defender.
If tests show he has a disorder, it could play a role in his defense for allegedly murdering Bongak "Jackie" Koja, 59, on June 9 during a routine walk by Leilehua High School in Wahiawa.
City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle had objected to the tests during a hearing Monday on the issue, saying doctors strongly doubted whether he has a convulsive disorder.
Janto, 34, had confessed to police in the days after Koja's disappearance that he killed her during a confrontation at a bus stop.
But he recently tried to have his confession suppressed, saying he only recited to police what detectives had told him about the crime to avoid a murder charge and life prison sentence.
Bento had argued that police violated his right to counsel and his right to avoid self-incrimination.
Janto, who testified that he smoked crystal methamphetamine regularly, allegedly told detectives that he punched Koja at a bus stop when she used pepper spray on him.
He also allegedly said he chased her to the school, choked her, pounded her head on the pavement and put her in a trash container.
Circuit Judge James Aiona Jr. ruled that the state could use Janto's statements and approved his diagnostic tests.
Autonomy No. 1 issue for UH president
University of Hawaii President Kenneth P. Mortimer hopes to find the university with a little more freedom at the end of the 1998 state Legislature.Mortimer said the most important issue facing the UH this session is not the budget but university autonomy. Legislative approval of a bill that would make the UH a quasi-public corporation would go a long way toward allowing it to lure capital to Hawaii, helping the economy, he said.
The UH autonomy bill is one of the state Economic Revitalization Task Force recommendations, which Gov. Ben Cayetano is expected to submit to lawmakers soon, Mortimer said.
"We think that's going to be the big issue for substantive debate during the session," he said. "What is the relationship of the university to the state?"
Mortimer and UH provosts and administrators packed the Senate Ways and Means Committee room yesterday for a four-hour briefing on the UH system. They told committee Co-chairwomen Carol Fukunaga and Rosalyn H. Baker they're doing everything possible to cope with recent budget cuts while maintaining access and providing quality education to students, two fundamental goals of the UH strategic plan.
As a result, the UH has submitted a scaled-back fiscal 1998-99 supplemental budget request of $2 million in general funds and $13.8 million in construction funds, with $13.5 million of that to finish the new Pacific Ocean Science and Technology Center at Manoa, said Allan Ah San, associate vice president for administration.
UH Campus Center's dining room to reopen
Marriott Education Services will reopen the main dining room at the University of Hawaii-Manoa Campus Center on Monday, with breakfast service starting at 6:30 a.m.The dining room has been under reconstruction since an April 1997 fire caused an estimated $2 million damage.
A blessing and dedication will be held Friday at 11 a.m.
Guam storm victims will get Aloha Run T-shirts
Guam typhoon victims will receive 1,600 Great Aloha Run T-shirts.Each year, there are no-shows for the race, making for some leftover T-shirts.
"Giving them to those in need quickly became the right answer of what to do with these (extra) shirts," said a spokesman.
The shirts are going to Guam at no cost courtesy of Continental Airlines.
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Police/Fire
By Star-Bulletin staffUnregistered sex offender nabbed
Police yesterday arrested a twice-convicted sex offender who failed to register with authorities.Russell Kekoa Akina, 36, was released from prison October 1997 and registered with a Waikiki address as a place of residence, police said.
Later that month, the address was found to be false, and Akina failed to show up for blood and saliva samples, police said.
Police said Akina was located and charged yesterday at 10:50 a.m. when they were investigating an apparent domestic dispute at South Beretania Street and Alapai Street.
Akina is being held in lieu of $40,000 bail.
Boy, 13, charged in sex assault
Police yesterday arrested and charged a 13-year-old boy with breaking into an Aliamanu home and attempting to rape a 13-year-old girl.On Monday, the boy allegedly broke into a Pohina Street home and tried to rape the girl, police said.
The girl was able to scream and flee from the suspect during the attack, police said.
The boy was charged with first-degree burglary and first-degree sexual assault.
Police said the case will be turned over to the military because the crime was committed on military property.
Japan visitor dies in Hapuna swim
HAPUNA BEACH, HAWAII -- A 48-year-old man from Japan apparently drowned while swimming at Hapuna Beach in West Hawaii yesterday, police said.Responding to a call about 4 p.m., police and fire rescue units found Kozo Kanazawa of Motosu-Gun, Jifu, Japan, floating 50 yards offshore.
An autopsy will be performed.
Kaneohe man arrested in drug case
State Narcotics Enforcement Division investigators arrested a 31-year-old Kaneohe man Tuesday for illegally obtaining 450 painkillers and depressant drugs.The man allegedly visited 12 different physicians over a 10-day period and obtained prescriptions from them by providing false or fraudulent information, say state investigators.
The man later filled the prescriptions at nine different pharmacies, investigators said.
The physician visits and drugs were paid for by state heath assistance programs, investigators said, because the man is unemployed.
During the week of Dec. 29, state narcotics investigators received 13 cases of people involved in illegal drug-seeking activities.
Big Isle wreck injuries fatal
KAILUA-KONA -- A Big Island woman died at Kona Hospital yesterday of injuries suffered in a two-car crash Monday, police said.The victim, Namie Matsumoto, 80, of Kapaau, North Kohala, was a passenger in a car driven by her husband, Kazutoshi Matsumoto, 88, when he drove in front of another car while making a left turn into Keahole Airport.
Kazutoshi Matsumoto and two passengers in the other car, Joan Thomas, 60, and Jerrie Vanhoven, 68, both of Idaho, were treated at Kona Hospital and released.
The driver of the second car, James Thomas, 60, as well as passengers A.W. Klotz, 93, and Bob Vanhoven, age unknown, all of Idaho, escaped injury.
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