CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Joseph Calarruda V is accused of killing Porky, above, a pet pig of a Mililani Mauka family. Calarruda was in Circuit Court yesterday for his jury trial.
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Witnesses at trial detail death of pet
A pig hunter claims he was nowhere near Mililani Mauka
A pig hunter accused of killing a pet pig on a privately owned lychee farm above Mililani Mauka contends he was at home with his girlfriend in Waianae and nowhere near the alleged crime scene.
Joseph B. Calarruda V, 29, went on trial yesterday in Circuit Judge Richard Pollack's courtroom in a case that has outraged pet lovers and elicited an outpouring of support from the national Humane Society and Greenpeace.
Calarruda is charged with felony theft of livestock, punishable by five years in prison.
Calarruda's girlfriend knew where he was practically the entire day and night when Porky was killed, said Deputy Public Defender Travis Stephens. He was with his pregnant girlfriend, taking care of her, Stephens said.
Three-hundred pound Porky was one in a litter of six piglets born to a wild sow that farm manager Aaron O'Brien captured on the 130-acre farm six years ago.
He raised Porky like a pet to the point where he would eat lychee out of people's hands and enjoyed rubs on his tummy, said Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bell.
On Oct. 22, 2006, occupants of one of two rental homes on the farm were finishing watching the evening news when they heard a high-pitched scream.
Renter Michael Chabala rushed outside and saw a man he later identified in a photo lineup as Calarruda emerge from the shadows. Although it was dark, motion sensor lights illuminated the scene outside, and he spotted hunting dogs cornering Porky inside the carport and begin mauling him. The air was filled with Porky's squeals and dogs howling. And the paved carport was awash in blood, Bell said.
Over the din, Chabala repeatedly yelled to the intruder: "This is private property! Get out of here! Pull your dogs off that pig! This is a pet pig!" Bell said during opening statements.
The intruder went in after the dogs but emerged, not with the dogs, but dragging Porky. Chabala's wife and mother-in-law also observed Calarruda before he disappeared into the darkness.
The intruders were gone by the time police arrived, but Chabala showed them an area outside the farm gates where a Nissan pickup truck equipped with a dog cage and with an expired tax sticker was parked in tall grass. No one was around, but a check of the license plates showed the truck was registered to a Raquel Silva.
The police left, but a short time later the same Nissan truck passed them and was pulled over because of the expired sticker. The passenger in the cab turned out to be Calarruda.
At an earlier hearing, the officer noted the strong stench of dogs coming from the truck.
A detective on Oct. 25 finally reached Silva, who said she was the only one who drove her truck.
But when the detective attempted to reach her again later that day, a man identifying himself as Joseph Calarruda answered.
"I one hunter, but I no hunt up Mililani side," the man allegedly said.
The detective had made no mention of Mililani or of hunting, Bell said.
The trial resumes tomorrow.