Isle airman loses bid
for case’s dismissal

The Big Island native is accused
of murder at a base on Okinawa

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By Kelly Olsen
Associated Press

TOKYO >> A military judge refused today a defense motion to dismiss charges against a 19-year-old airman from the Big Island accused of killing a U.S. Air Force maintenance worker on Japan's southern island of Okinawa.

Lawyers for the accused, Airman 1st Class Damien Kawai, argued when the trial opened Thursday that the case should be dropped because Kawai had been denied the right to a speedy trial.

Military prosecutors have charged Kawai, a 2000 Pahoa High School graduate, with the murder of Airman 1st Class Charles Eskew Jr., 20, and with larceny and obstruction of justice.

Chief Judge for the Pacific Circuit Col. David Brash rejected the motion to drop the case today, said Kadena Air Base spokesman Masao Doi.

Kawai has not yet entered a plea, and opening statements are expected next week. He has chosen to be tried by a panel of officers. Kawai also had the options of being tried by a judge alone or by a panel of officers and enlisted personnel.

Eskew was found dead in his dormitory room Nov. 17 at Kadena on Okinawa. The cause of his death has not been released.

Kawai faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment without parole, a dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of pay if convicted.

Judge Brash also denied defense motions to suppress statements Kawai made to investigators and to limit the maximum sentence to life with parole, Doi said.

Brash said he would make a final ruling on a defense request to change the trial's venue after selection of the panel of officers, likely to begin Monday at the next session of the trial. But the judge said the trial's proceedings were not biased by media coverage, Doi said.

Kawai, who has been held in pretrial confinement since Nov. 19, was charged with murder on Dec. 5. Lt. Gen. Thomas Waskow, commander of the 5th Air Force, decided on March 16 that the case should proceed to general court-martial.

Kawai is an aircraft jet engine mechanic. He joined the Air Force in September 2000 and was posted to Kadena, his first assignment, in April.

Eskew, the son of Patti and Charles Eskew Sr. of Great Falls, Mont., worked as a jet propulsion specialist at Kadena and volunteered as a chaplain's assistant there.

Okinawa, about 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo, is home to more than half of the 47,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan and serves as a key American military outpost in the Pacific.