‘I leave or I die,’
woman testifies

Boy Carvalho now faces 14
counts of sex assault

By Linda Hosek
Star-Bulletin

On March 25, Nora Castro called the police on a man she said she loved, a man she said had raped her, beat her and held her against her will since Feb. 27.

"Either I leave or I die," she said yesterday in court during a preliminary hearing for her former boyfriend, Alexander "Boy" Carvalho Jr., convicted in 1991 of manslaughter in the death of his wife, Cathy.

"I had to get out of that situation," the 43-year-old woman added. "I pray to God for someone to take me out before he kills me."

District Judge Karen Ahn found that the state offered enough evidence to send Carvalho, 47, to Circuit Court for trial, and scheduled his arraignment for April 27.

Ahn also approved state motions to hold Carvalho without bail and to prohibit him from contacting Castro, who is staying at a shelter for abused women.

He was in custody in lieu of $570,000 bail.

The state has charged Carvalho with nine counts of first-degree sex assault, five counts of third-degree sex assault, and kidnapping or holding Castro against her will from Feb. 27 to March 25.

First-degree sex assault and kidnapping carry 20-year prison terms; third-degree sex assault carries a five-year term.

David Hayakawa, Carvalho's attorney and deputy public defender, said Castro consented to sex with his client and that she stayed with him in a Waimanalo van because she wanted to.

"We have a jealous woman who is told to leave, and she calls the police," he said out of court.

Hayakawa said Castro alleged that Carvalho hit and kicked her with "full-on" strength, but that the only bruise she had was to an eye.

Castro said doctors examined her and found fractured ribs and a crack in her skull.

It was the second time in two years Castro called police to bring charges against Carvalho -- and the second time the defense cited her jealousy.

Jurors in August 1996 acquitted Carvalho of two counts of abusing a household member and intimidating a witness.

Castro, who then went by the name of Pacheco, had alleged that Carvalho had kicked, punched and threatened her in February 1996 when he was out on parole.

Nelson Goo, Carvalho's attorney in the 1996 case, had said that Pacheco was a jealous woman who manipulated the system to hurt Carvalho.

Carvalho had testified that she picked a fight when he talked with two women and that she threatened to "fix" him after he told her to move out. He also said he knew she would call police.

Castro said that Carvalho punched her without warning, but later altered her statements about the abuse. She said her feelings for him and pressure from his family members made her modify her story.

In the current case, Deputy Prosecutor Lynne McGivern argued to hold Carvalho without bail, citing his danger to the community and that he had tested positive for cocaine while on parole. She also said Carvalho fled after he killed his wife and was arrested in California.

Castro testified that she visited Carvalho while he was in prison and resumed living with him about a week after he was released Dec. 14.

She said he started hitting her in late February.

"I felt very scared, like it was happening all over again," she said. "I feel he never changed. He (went) to prison but he stayed the same person."

She began to cry when she testified that he said he was going to kill her, but nobody would find her body. Castro also said he slammed his fist into her face because she didn't do what he told her to do.