Jurors told: Ignore previous
conduct in Carvalho’s trial

By Susan Kreifels
Star-Bulletin

The jurors will have a choice: believing a man convicted of beating his wife to death 11 years ago, acquitted in 1996 of abusing his former girlfriend, and now facing sexual abuse charges involving the same woman.

Or believing the former girlfriend, who testified in 1996 that he beat her and threatened to kill her yet changed her story to officials and media.

But jurors also will be told they must not let past actions or acquittals determine guilt, innocence or credibility in the complex trial that awaits them.

More than 100 potential jurors in the trial of Alexander "Boy" Carvalho Jr. heard "mini" opening statements yesterday and received some instructions from Circuit Judge Michael Town.

The early information given to the jury panel before jury selection is part of a pilot project in jury innovations that was authorized by the state Supreme Court.

Carvalho, 47, is charged with sexually assaulting and kidnapping, or holding against her will, his former girlfriend Nora Castro between Feb. 27 and March 25.

Although normally not done in trials, jurors will be told the criminal history of Carvalho, who was convicted in 1991 of manslaughter in the beating death of his wife Cathie fours years earlier.

They will also be told that Carvalho was acquitted in August 1996 of abusing a household member and intimidating a witness -- Castro.

Castro, who then went by the name of Pacheco, twice recanted her charges against him to the media then, Deputy Public Defender David Hayakawa told the jury panel.

She also changed her statements to police and government officials. But during the 1996 trial, she testified that Carvalho had beaten her and threatened to kill her and that she had changed her story out of stress, fear and love for Carvalho.

Town told 106 prospective jurors yesterday that they will be told some of these facts to determine Castro's state of mind at the time of the alleged assaults this year. Castro says Carvalho intimidated her by telling her details of how he killed his wife.

But Town also told them they were "absolutely forbidden" to use such information as evidence to determine whether Carvalho was "guilty or even acted violently or even lost his temper."

Nor should Carvalho's 1996 acquittal involving Castro determine her credibility now, Town said.

Carvalho is charged with nine counts of first-degree sexual assault, five counts of third-degree sexual assault, and one count of kidnapping.

In a brief opening statement, Deputy Prosecutor Lynne McGivern said Castro, 43, and Carvalho had a long and complicated relationship that started when she was 15 and he was 19 or 20.

Castro became pregnant by Carvalho, who was married. She didn't tell Carvalho about the baby and moved to the Big Island to raise her son, who was killed in a car crash in the early 1990s.

Carvalho, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing his wife, and Castro started writing when he was in prison.

When he was out on parole in 1996, they lived together in a converted van. "He soon became abusive . . . hitting her and threatening to kill her," McGivern said.

McGivern said Carvalho intimidated Castro by telling her details about how he killed his wife and that he was part of another beating death as well.

In February 1996, Castro called police and accused Carvalho of beating her.

Castro recanted her allegations, McGivern said, because "she still loved him and believed he needed her." The defendant and his family also pressured her to change her story.

Carvalho, although acquitted, went back to prison for provoking his parole by testing positive for cocaine. Castro continued to visit him.

He was released in late 1997 and they started living together again. He soon started to abuse her, control her and force her to have sex, McGivern said.

"She felt like it was a prison," McGivern said. "At that point she was so afraid of him."

In March 1998, she confided in a therapist, who urged her to call the police.

Four days later he gave her a black eye, McGivern said, she called the police, and moved into a shelter for abused women.

Hayakawa said the sex was consensual and that the case was about Castro's extreme jealousy -- the same argument Carvalho's defense used in 1996.

"Alexander Carvalho couldn't look at another woman or talk to her unless it was his two daughters or sister," Hayakawa said.

When Carvalho couldn't take the jealousy anymore, he would tell her to leave. Then she would call the police in retaliation.

When Castro's anger would subside, "she wants to make up and changes her story," Hayakawa said. "That is the kind of case we have here."