Witness ID’s attacker
in club bouncer’s death

College student Tony Kwak is
charged with second-degree murder

---

By Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.com

Bouncer Robert Cullen was breaking up a fight at the Venus Nite Club last Oct. 6 when he was killed, nightclub cashier Aaron "Kapu" Torres testified yesterday.

He was holding someone in a headlock when a man kicked Cullen, 50, in the chest so hard that Torres could hear the air go out, he told jurors.

Attorneys also gave opening statements yesterday in the trial of 22-year-old Leeward Community College student Tony Kwak, charged with second-degree murder in Cullen's death.

Jurors were scheduled to visit the Venus Nite Club today.

Deputy Prosecutor Barry Kemp contends Kwak was the man who delivered a running football-type kick, not a martial arts kick, to Cullen's chest, causing his face to change color and knocking him to the ground.

Efforts to revive him at the scene were unsuccessful.

Cullen, the club's head bouncer and a 27-year employee of TheBus, was rushed by ambulance to Straub Hospital where he died about an hour later. Kemp said it was due to a concussion of the heart.

"The kick stopped Bobby's heart," Kemp said.

Deputy public defender Debra Loy said: "Nobody could see everything. Everybody saw something."

Kwak went to the club that night with a couple of male friends, Loy said. One of them, who had passed out on the couch, awoke to find his girlfriend doing an erotic dance and flirting with some men, one of whom offered her a dollar bill, Loy told jurors.

Kwak's friend punched one of the men, Loy said.

When Kwak saw his friend being punched, jumped on and attacked by the group of men, he came to his aid by kicking a man who was ready to take a swing at him, Loy said.

Loy said Kwak never touched Cullen, who was holding his friend in a headlock.

While fighting, Kwak felt a severe blow to the back of his head, Loy said, then saw a man lying on the ground.

Loy said Torres was heard telling a security guard to "go after the man in the gray sweater" for kicking Cullen. But Torres denied saying that.

On the witness stand, Torres said he pointed Kwak out to security, though he does not remember if he described his clothing.

Torres testified that Kwak was wearing a green plaid shirt, which police photos showed him wearing.

But Loy tried to show inconsistencies in Torres' previous testimony and statement to police that he wore a short-sleeved shirt when the shirt had long sleeves.

"There's a possibility he changed his shirt (for the photos)," Torres said.

Torres said Cullen got swept into the large group of people exiting the club, and eventually he, too, got swept into the crowd.

He lost sight of Cullen for a while, but witnessed the attack and kept a constant eye on the attacker, Torres said.

He testified he was in a bent position and got between Cullen and his attacker, telling him to stop. After seeing Cullen's condition, the man backed off, Torres said.