Golf course shooting suspects indicted on gambling charges
A federal grand jury has indicted four men, two of whom are awaiting trial in the January 2004 Pali Golf Course shootings, on gambling and racketeering charges.
Those indicted were Kai Ming Wang, also known as "A Fook"; Rodney Joseph; Kevin A. Gonsalves, also known as "Poncho"; and Siaosi Alapati.
In 2004, Joseph and Gonsalves were indicted in state court on first-degree murder and other charges in the golf course shootings, in which two men were fatally shot, another seriously wounded.
In the federal indictment, the four were charged with operating an illegal gambling business, operating a racketeer-influenced and corrupt organization, and numerous counts of violent crime in aid of racketeering, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office yesterday. The acts of racketeering include operating an illegal gambling business, extortion and robbery.
The Feb. 15 indictment was unsealed yesterday, and one of the defendants was arrested Tuesday, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Florence Nakakuni, who did not identify which defendant was arrested.
Nakakuni declined to comment on whether the shootings were connected to the alleged gambling and racketeering acts, but police have said the shooting stemmed from a dispute between factions competing to provide security at gambling houses.
In the gambling case, the four men face a minimum five years' imprisonment for operating a gambling business and 20 years for each of the racketeering crimes, and a $250,000 fine for each count.
