Luton meant to kill,
says prosecutor

But the defense says
he stabbed a Minnesota visitor
accidentally while escaping

By Linda Hosek
Star-Bulletin

Brian Luton had planned to steal something when he entered an unlocked Waikiki hotel room in 1993, but he did not plan to kill the Minnesota woman he saw asleep on the bed, his attorney said this morning.

When the woman's daughter and husband walked in on him, his hand went back toward the victim and he ran past the two without stabbing them with his knife, Deputy Public Defender William Jameson said to jurors in Luton's trial for second-degree murder and first-degree burglary.

"He will tell you he didn't realize he had stabbed that lady," Jameson said, adding that Luton burglarized the room but unintentionally caused her death.

But Deputy Prosecutor Maurice Arrisgado said Luton stabbed Joanna Larson-Hammink in the heart and that her daughter, Jennifer Novak, saw him crouched over her mother.

He said Novak saw him jump over the second-floor balcony of the Aston Waikikian on the Beach and saw her mother collapse on her back on the bed.

After emergency treatment at Queen's Hospital, Larson-Hammink, 44, died at 4:15 a.m. April 26, 1993, from a stab wound to the heart from which she bled to death, Arrisgado said.

Arrisgado said police cornered Luton in the ocean, where they later found the victim's checkbook and room key and Luton's wallet and knife.

When police took Luton to Queen's for treatment, Novak and her stepfather, Norman Hammink, recognized him.

"The defendant had no excuse or justification for taking the life of Joanna Hammink," Arrisgado said, adding that the victim had come to Hawaii to attend a surprise birthday luau.

Luton, 29, on probation for a sex-assault offense at the time of the incident, is in custody in lieu of $100,000 bail.

A trial judge in 1994 ruled that Luton's statements to police were involuntary, ending the trial while the state appealed the ruling.

The state Supreme Court in November found that detectives did not violate Luton's rights when they obtained his statements.