Judge orders
shooting suspect
held for trial

Cousin recants statement

By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

A 16-year-old Kailua girl who was shot July 7 told police she and five teen-age friends had stopped for a smoke break near Alapai Street when they saw a man armed with a gun approaching them.

Nuu Pelesasa, 21, thought the group of teens were the auto thieves who had damaged his car the night before and allegedly fired a shot at their van as they tried to flee.

The bullet struck Luann Liftee, seated in the right rear seat of the van, in the upper right abdomen, Detective Mark Wiese said at yesterday's preliminary hearing for Pelesasa, who is charged with attempted second-degree murder and five counts of reckless endangering.

Wiese said he interviewed Liftee on Sunday after she was released from Queen's Hospital.

The shooting has left Liftee partially paralyzed and the bullet is still in her body, he testified.

The five teens with Liftee -- identified in court as Jonathan Rego, Anthony and Nicole Pavo, Nalei So'oto and James Prentice -- were not injured.

District Judge Marcia Waldorf sent Pelesasa's case to Circuit Court for trial. He will be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. July 27.

Wiese testified that Liftee told him the group was in the area because the Pavos wanted to show them the house in which they used to live.

Some members of the group had left the van, which was parked on Manele Street, to smoke cigarettes.

It was then that they saw a man coming out of a third-floor apartment at 1420 Alapai St. When they noticed he had a gun, they fled in the van, with Rego driving.

Rego turned left on Green Street, right onto Emerson Street and right again on Captain Cook Avenue. They saw Pelesasa again at the intersection of Captain Cook and Magellan avenues.

"The male that came out with the gun was now in the roadway," Wiese said, recounting the girl's statements to him. "He had the gun out and was in a crouching position."

The gun was aimed at the van, said Wiese, who estimated Pelesasa was from 30 to 40 yards away from the vehicle.

"She heard a bang and at the same time felt pain in her side," Wiese said.

Wiese said Pelesasa admitted in a taped interview that he was very upset about his car being damaged the night before the shooting.

When Pelesasa noticed the van the following night and one of the teens walking toward the parking lot, he thought they were trying to break into his car, Wiese said.

Pelesasa shot at the teens because "he felt the people in the van could have been the ones responsible for the damage to his vehicle," Wiese said.

Pelesasa's car had its door lock punched in and steering column broken, Wiese said.

Johnny Yuhasi, Pelesasa's cousin, denied telling police -- although the statements were taped -- that Pelesasa had shown him a gun and had told him he was going to kill someone if they tried to break into his car, according to Wiese.

Yuhasi also denied that Pelesasa approached him at his workplace at 2 a.m., several hours after the shooting, and told him to lie if police questioned him.

"They forced me to say things I didn't want to," Yuhasi said of his statements to police. "They told me if I don't tell the truth, I'm going down, too."

Deputy Public Defender David Hayakawa argued unsuccessfully that Pelesasa should not be charged with attempted murder because there's no evidence to indicate he singled out Liftee.