Suspect’s mom
saw son with
hammer by victim

By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

Carolyn Lawrence said she saw a vacuum-cleaner salesman lying in a pool of blood and her son standing with a hammer in his hand, according to a police report.

Although they have not yet recovered a body, police have charged 23-year-old Michael Robert Lawrence of 67-186 Kanoulu St. in Waialua with the murder of Melchor Tabag, 41.

Circumstantial evidence for the charge is presented in an affidavit filed Tuesday in District Court by Detective Clifford Rubio.

It includes statements by Carolyn Lawrence and her husband, Frederick, who reported Tabag missing to police.

Carolyn Lawrence said Tabag had been demonstrating products in her son's bedroom between 10 a.m. and noon on Saturday before she saw the two men walk out the kitchen door, which leads to a washroom and back patio area.

She later opened the kitchen door and saw Tabag "lying on his back with his eyes open wide and not moving; there was a stream of blood on the left forehead area ... Michael Robert Lawrence was carrying a hammer in his right hand and lifted the hammer as he spoke to her," the affidavit stated.

"Carolyn Lawrence became scared and locked herself in the bedroom," Rubio's report added.

Carolyn Lawrence returned to the kitchen a short time later and was told by her son to "mop up," Rubio said. A few minutes later, a car drove off.

The affidavit said Carolyn Lawrence used a bath towel to clean a pool of blood measuring 6 inches by 2 feet on the concrete patio floor.

"There was a lot of blood to which the bath towel could not absorb at once," Rubio says in the report. Carolyn Lawrence rinsed the towel and wiped the floor several times, he added.

She then placed the towel and a camouflage jacket with blood on it in the washer.

Carolyn Lawrence found Tabag's vacuum cleaner in her son's bedroom and his shoes on the washroom steps, the report says.

Michael Lawrence was driving Tabag's car when he was arrested at 9:57 p.m. Saturdayin Haleiwa, more than 10 hours after his mother saw the salesman lying on the floor in the patio of her home.

The suspect was in possession of keys to Tabag's car, a smaller key ring and a Times Super Market card belonging to Tabag, the affidavit said.

Police found a knife with blood and mud on the blade and a meat-bone saw with "what appeared to be blood, hair and flesh attached to the jagged cutting edge" in the trunk of the car. Both items were wrapped with newspaper.

A bloody claw hammer wrapped in camouflage fatigue clothing was found in back of the driver's seat. Police also recovered Tabag's gold-colored watch in a plastic bag covered with blood under the right passenger seat.

The suspect's father, Frederick Lawrence, told police the bone saw was his and that he last saw it hanging in the patio outside the washroom. He added the claw hammer had been in a tool chest in the patio. The dagger belonged to his son, Lawrence said.

Frederick Lawrence said his son "is proficient in using the bone saw to cut pigs they hunt and kill," the report said.

Homicide Lt. Allen Napoleon yesterday confirmed the blood found on the evidence recovered from the car is human blood. Lab tests are being performed on the blood and other things for a match to Tabag, he added.

Meanwhile, the search for Tabag's body was called off after four days. Police and K-9 units scoured the woods of Waialua and Mokuleia, but found nothing. A preliminary hearing for Michael Lawrence is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Monday at District Court. Heis being held in lieu of $150,000 bail.