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XEROX SHOOTINGS
Witness couldn’t
believe the scene
The bleeding, lifeless bodies
By Debra Barayuga
at Xerox made George Moad sick
Star-BulletinDisbelief. Shock. Sick.
George Moad used these words to describe the emotions that coursed through him that morning when he discovered the bleeding and lifeless bodies of workers at the Xerox warehouse.
Moad was the first witness to take the stand today in the multiple murder trial of Xerox copy machine repairman Byran Uyesugi, charged with the murder of seven coworkers on Nov. 2, 1999.
During questioning by prosecutor Peter Carlisle, Moad, a distribution supervisor for Hawaii Transfer, a company which did contract work for Xerox, gave a vivid account of the day that ended in Hawaii's worst multiple slaying.
He said he was completing reports in a ground floor office at the 1200 N. Nimitz building around 8 a.m. when he heard banging sounds.
"It sounded like someone hitting a pipe with a hammer," he testified.
About 30 seconds later, he heard another series of noises, but this time, less audible.
He shrugged it off as pallets falling in the warehouse. But he said was unprepared for a loud boom that followed, and a few seconds later, Valerie Nakahara, warehouse supervisor burst into his office.
"Something's wrong upstairs," she told him.
An audible alarm for the building had gone off.
Thinking it was probably an electrical fire, both ran up a staircase leading to the second floor. Smoke filled the corridor.
Moad said he was not prepared for what he discovered a room near the top of the stairs.
Repair technician Ron Kawamae was sitting in his chair at his work desk, "bleeding profusely from the head," Moad said. Jason Balatico, also a technician, lay just inside the door, lying face down in a pool of blood.
Family members of the victims who attended today's trial sniffed back tears during Moad's account.
"I saw bodies and I couldn't understand, fathom," he continued.
Then Moad saw bullet casings on the floor. While Nakahara tried to locate a phone down the hall to call 911, Moad checked the other training rooms.
The door to a conference room was ajar with someone's hand preventing the door from being closed properly, he said. John Sakamoto was lying face up on the floor. Moad pushed his way in and spotted the remaining bodies.
"I felt sick," Moad testified.
After herding his employees outside, Moad said he returned inside and was met by Nakahara and Xerox worker Lance Hamura.
"I asked Lance, who did this, did you see?"
He said Hamura replied, "I don't know but I saw Byran leave through the back."
Moad had previous contact with Byran Uyesugi and never had any problems with him, he said. During questioning by Jerel Fonseca, Uyesugi's attorney, Moad said he was not aware of any complaints by Uyesugi that he or other parts employees were supplying Uyesugi with defective parts.
Nakahara testified she saw Uyesugi earlier that morning and said hello. He appeared calm and normal, she said. And she didn't see him carrying a gun.
Uyesugi had talked to her on one occasion about the accuracy of bullets and that conversation made her uncomfortable, she said.
She said supervisor Melvin Lee had asked her to meet with him and Uyesugi once to discuss Uyesugi's complaints that someone was sabotaging his parts.
After the meeting, Lee decided to increase the number of parts for Uyesugi. It seemed Uyesugi had more problems with his parts than the other repair technicians, Nakahara said.
Carlisle also called the wives of six victims and son of the seventh victim. One by one, the wives took the stand and described where they grew up, when they met their husbands, their husband’s interests and the last time they saw their husbands alive. Karen Mark, the wife of victim Peter Mark, cried on the stand when asked to describe her husband. A juror also wiped away tears.
Among the evidence recovered from the scene by police evidence specialist Clarence Fraser were shell casings, deformed bullets, bullet fragments and shrapnel, an empty magazine clip. Fraser testified he recovered a bullet casing from beneath the body of Sakamoto, a spent projectile under Mark. Also under Mark was the empty magazine.
Evidence specialist John Wadahara recovered a bullet from a steel conduit at the bottom of the staircase.
Reporter Suzanne Tswei contributed to this story.
Xerox killings
