Fatal 100 mph race
a ‘mistake’

Prosecutors say a man should
serve time for his H-1 crash

Nicholas Tudisco has a foggy recollection of what happened that night more than three years ago -- the impact of his car hitting a wall on the H-1 freeway and his distress when he found out someone had been injured.

Nicholas Tudisco: Hopes to be sentenced as a youthful offender for fatal crash

"This was never a planned race," his attorney, Michael Green, said yesterday in Tudisco's first public account. "There were men who stopped traffic, so he tried to get around them, and they tailgated him, and they wound up racing, and someone lost their life."

Noting the consequences of the 20-second race were immense, Green said, "his future, basically, and what he prepared for is gone, and we have a very fine member of our community who lost her life -- so there's losers on both sides."

Tudisco, 21, formerly of Hawaii Kai, pleaded no contest yesterday before Circuit Judge Karl Sakamoto to reckless manslaughter -- racing about 100 mph and causing the death of popular Holy Trinity teacher Elizabeth Kekoa.

According to Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Takata, Tudisco, then 18, lost control of his car just a mile before the 6th Avenue offramp, and struck the back of the van in which Kekoa was the front seat passenger, causing the van to hit the center median and smash head-on into a guardrail on the opposite side of the freeway.

Kekoa, 58, died of a broken neck in the Aug. 26, 2001, crash that also injured her husband and mother.

At sentencing on March 1, Tudisco will ask the judge that he be sentenced as a youthful offender, receiving no more than eight years in prison. The youthful offender statute is appropriate for decent young men who have never been in trouble with the law before and who made a mistake, just like Tudisco, Green said.

"Based on everything in Nick's background, how he was brought up and who he is, I think he should qualify."

To sentence him as a youthful offender, the judge has to rule before Tudisco's 22nd birthday, which is next March.

Manslaughter is punishable by a maximum 20 years imprisonment. Tudisco could also get 10 years probation, with one year in jail.

Takata said incarceration is warranted in this case but he will speak with the family and await the results of a presentencing report to decide how long they will ask the court to sentence Tudisco.

"We're not claiming he's a bad guy," Takata said. "He did a bad thing."

The message needs to be sent, if not in Tudisco's case, to any similar racing cases that result in fatalities, that Hawaii's highways are not raceways, street racing is a crime and that excessive speed can turn a car into a lethal weapon, Takata said.

Monica Des Jarlais, principal of Holy Trinity School and one of Kekoa's closest friends, said on behalf of the family that they were very disappointed in Tudisco's plea.

"We really wish that he had taken responsibility by saying guilty," she said. By entering a plea of no contest, they feel Tudisco has not taken responsibility "nor does he seem to understand how Liz' life has affected all of us," Des Jarlais added.

The Kekoa family in May reached an undisclosed settlement in a lawsuit filed against Tudisco and his parents, who now live on the mainland.

Tudisco was suspended from playing baseball at Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo after he was indicted in January. Green said he is expected to graduate in August.