Kalihi man gets life
in wife’s killing

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By Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.com

As five of his six children, ages 3 to 15, looked on, a 39-year-old Kalihi man was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for stabbing his wife to death at their home four years ago.

"Please forgive me for killing your mother," Saturnino Millon told his children in his native Ilocano before the sentencing yesterday.

A tearful Millon, his voice breaking, asked for forgiveness from the state, his siblings, his wife's family and his children.

His daughter, Honey Millon, 15, told Circuit Judge Wilfred Watanabe, "I yearn for the comfort of my parents. ... With only one parent, my dad is my only hope -- not only for me, but for my other siblings.

"Please give my dad another chance, your honor. Take pity, your honor."

On March 18, 2000, 37-year-old Erlinda Millon was found bleeding on her kitchen floor with knife wounds in the chest and stomach. She had no pulse.

She had a temporary restraining order against her husband after a March 30, 1998, incident in which he threatened her with a bolo knife.

Deputy Public Defender Deb-ra Loy said her client was delusional, believing his wife was unfaithful and that everyone was talking about him, and had heard voices days before the murder.

After the couple had an argument, "he snapped," she said.

Millon was diagnosed with borderline intellectual ability and abused methamphetamine, Loy said. He was also under physical and financial strain, she said, because the couple lived in a tiny home with six children; the last three were babies at the time.

Millon confessed to his children, to detectives and psychological examiners, and he called 911, Loy said. He pleaded guilty so the children could avoid testifying at trial, she said.

Millon's sister and her husband have taken five of the six children into their home. The couple also have six children of their own. Another sister cares for Millon's youngest, a 2-year-old daughter.

Honey Millon said she did not know whether "to forgive him or be mad at him for the rest of his life." She said she now knows her father did not intentionally kill her mother and regrets his terrible sin.

Deputy Prosecutor Rom Trader said Erlinda Millon stuck by her husband and was a good mother and faithful wife who worked as a part-time nurse's aide.

Ironically, her love and concern put her in jeopardy, he said. In 1998 she asked the court not to put her husband back in prison so he could show "he's not really a bad guy."

The life sentence will run concurrently with a 10-year term for terroristic threatening.