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Trial begins in
strangulation slaying
of man in Waikiki

---

By Treena Shapiro
Star-Bulletin

Henry Paoa lost his massage business and his family disowned him, all because of his addiction to cocaine and alcohol.

On April 2, shortly after smoking crack cocaine, Paoa, 47, was killed in an Ena Road apartment in Waikiki.

Kennard Montez, 38, is charged with beating and strangling Paoa. His trial started today before Circuit Court Judge Virginia Lea Crandall.

Montez, originally from Arkansas, had been attending the John Marshall Law School in Chicago when he met a man who owned an apartment in Waikiki. Montez, at the man's invitation, had been staying in the empty apartment since June 1999.

According to Deputy Prosecutor Jeffrey Albert, Montez, who had been drinking all night, invited Paoa to the apartment then got angry for some reason and chased Paoa around the apartment until he cornered him.

Paoa, meanwhile, was calling for help, perhaps to an unidentified woman who was also in the apartment.

Paoa "slugged" Montez once in a panic, but Montez was able to pull Paoa down, Albert said.

"The first thing he does is gouge out Henry's eyes," he said.

He then crushed Paoa's windpipe and choked him to death, Albert said. Then, "Kenny pounds his head into the floor for good measure."

When police came to the door in response to a call from a downstairs neighbor, Montez opened the door calmly and said, " 'he attacked me,' " Albert said. "When he gets to the door, Mr. Montez is not excited. He's not in shock. He's not frantic. He's not even breathing hard."

However, deputy public defender Todd Eddins described a different version of events in which Paoa was the aggressor. Paoa "went nuts," Eddins said.

"He transformed from a Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde and Mr. Montez's home transformed into a battleground," Eddins said.

Eddins said Montez acted in self-defense. Paoa, who Montez had just met that night, left the apartment to pick up marijuana and came back with a woman who "appears to be a prostitute. She's also somewhat dirty."

According to Eddins, Paoa demanded $300 for Montez to have sex with the woman. When Montez declined, Paoa hit him across the mouth with an empty beer bottle and proceeded to beat him, with some help from the woman.

When Montez got on top of Paoa, he first tried to strangle him, and when that failed, applied pressure to Paoa's eyes and beat his head into the kitchen floor until he died, Eddins said.

Montez then went to the couch and curled up in the fetal position until the police arrived, he said.

Police officer S. Tamaoka testified that Montez was calm when he answered the door, and said just loudly enough to hear, "he brought a woman and he attacked me."

While Tamaoka waited for emergency personnel and backup, Montez sat on the floor and offered no resistance, Tamaoka said.

If found guilty of second degree murder, Montez faces a sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.