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Manoa robbery suspect
Rodrigues to stand trial

Another home-invation robbery
on St. Louis Heights

By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

A 20-year-old unemployed Enchanted Lake man will be tried for a July 8 home-invasion robbery in Manoa Valley although relatives testified he was at home when the incident occurred.

District Judge Faauuga Tootoo ruled yesterday there was probable cause for police to arrest Shaun Rodrigues after he was identified in a photo lineup by two victims.

Rodrigues is charged with two counts each of armed robbery and kidnapping and one count of first-degree burglary. His arraignment and plea is set for July 31 at Circuit Court.

He was released Friday after posting $100,000 bail. Tootoo reduced the bail amount yesterday to $75,000 but issued a no-contact order prohibiting Rodrigues, his family or friends from contacting the victims.

Antoinette "Toni" Trazo-Kurihara and her husband, Tod Kurihara, testified Friday that their son, Shaun, was at home asleep when they returned from breakfast at "10 to 9" on the morning of July 8.

Yesterday, 15-year-old Royce Kurihara said he was watching television in the family room, where his brother was asleep, when his parents arrived home from breakfast at exactly "10 to 9."

Dianne Sugihara and her 24-year-old daughter, Dawn, were confronted by a gunman inside their home at about 9 a.m. In separate photo lineups, both women identified Rodrigues as the man who robbed them.

Attorneys William Harrison and George Lindsey, representing Rodrigues, argued that Dianne Sugihara might have picked Rodrigues because he had installed a security system in her home.

But her daughter had never seen the suspect before the robbery.

When asked about the photo lineup outside court yesterday, robbery Detective Henry Nobriga said Dawn Sugihara had no trouble picking out the suspect from a 1997 police photo.

"In my 25 years of doing this, it's one of the fastest," Nobriga said of the identification Dawn Sugihara provided. "She was sure he was the guy.

"That she was positive makes her a compelling witness. In this case, there's no physical evidence so all we have is a compelling witness."

Nobriga added that police had determined a link between the alarm system and earlier break-ins, including one in Makiki on July 4 when an 83-year-old woman was confronted by a gunman and tied up, the day before the Sugihara incident occurred.

Nobriga said police were trying to eliminate Rodrigues as a suspect because he was recognizable to victims as the alarm installer.

"To tell you the truth, we were dumbfounded when the daughter picked him out," Nobriga said. "That's what put everything together."

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Vince Kanemoto told the court yesterday that Rodrigues has been identified by a witness in another case in Manoa.

Kanemoto was prepared to have two police detectives, Glenn Muramoto and Derrick Kiyotoki, testify yesterday that statements Rodrigues' parents presented in court Friday conflicted with what they told police.

Tootoo said the testimony was not needed.

Kiyotoki said outside the courtroom that Trazo-Kurihara and her husband told police they went out for breakfast at "10 to 9" and returned home at 10:30 on July 8.