Suspect’s identity The state calls it positive identity.
at issue in
invasion trial
Opening statements focus on
whether a Manoa family
could identify an intruderBy Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.comThe defense calls it mistaken identity.
It will be up to Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall to decide as she listens to evidence in the home-invasion trial of Shaun C. Rodrigues.
Rodrigues, 21, went on trial yesterday for allegedly breaking into the Manoa home of Dianne Sugihara early on July 8, 2000, with the intent to burglarize, tying up mother and daughter and robbing them at gunpoint.
Rodrigues, charged with first-degree burglary, two counts of first-degree robbery and two counts of kidnapping, faces a mandatory 20 years' imprisonment if convicted of the robbery counts.
The defense says Rodrigues arrived at his Enchanted Lake home about 2 a.m. after a night of dancing and was asleep at the time the Sugiharas were being robbed.
Deputy Prosecutor Russell Uehara said Sugihara and daughter Dawn both positively identified Rodrigues from a photo lineup as the man who terrorized them at gunpoint that morning.
But it was not until police prodded her memory did Dianne Sugihara, 54, realize that the man she identified as the burglar was the same "Shaun" who had come to her home the month before on two occasions, the second time to install an alarm system and whom she had offered a drink in her kitchen.
She began shaking uncontrollably, Uehara said.
"She was appalled that the person she offered a drink to would violate her home on July 8, 2000."
Dawn Sugihara returned home at about 9:10 a.m. after going out for breakfast and was confronted by a gun-wielding intruder. Dianne Sugihara was in the bathroom getting ready to shower when she opened the door to find herself looking into the barrel of a gun.
The intruder ordered both women to the floor, allowing Dianne Sugihara to don only a towel.
Although Sugihara is nearsighted and was not wearing her glasses or contacts at the time, she could clearly see the burglar, Uehara said. He tied them up as they lay face down and covered their heads with some clothing.
He told the women he was not a rapist and repeatedly demanded to know where they kept their money and jewelry.
Sugihara told him they had been burglarized twice before and that all her jewelry were gone.
But he had spotted her wedding ring when he tied her up, so he ordered her to take it off or he would cut off her finger, Uehara said.
The intruder kept demanding to know where the rest of the valuables were while the women repeated that nothing was left after the previous burglaries.
The women managed to untie themselves after he left and called 911.
Although the women were not sure they could identify the burglar just after the incident, both positively identified Rodrigues in separate photo lineups two days later, Uehara said.
Rodrigues' mother provided an alibi for his whereabouts, saying she and her husband had gone to breakfast that morning and returned home to find Shaun still sleeping at 10:30 a.m. But at Rodrigues' preliminary hearing in July 2000, family members testified they had arrived home much earlier than 10:30 a.m.
Defense attorney William Harrison said Rodrigues' brother Royce will testify that he was at home all morning watching TV and playing video games just three feet from where Shaun slept.
Harrison said the state is relying on "questionable ID" by the Sugiharas, and questioned why Dianne Sugihara did not immediately recognize the alarm installer who had been to her house twice as the man who robbed them.
Rodrigues was hired in mid-May 2000 by Hawaii Alarm Systems but was fired less than two months later.
He also installed an alarm system at the Makiki home of an 81-year-old woman who was robbed four days before the Sugiharas.
At the close of this trial, Rodrigues faces another trial involving a July 6 attempted robbery at another Manoa home.
The homeowners returned home to find a ladder propped against the house and were confronted by a man they said pointed a gun at them. At least four witnesses identified the man as Rodrigues.