Isle airman’s startling
testimony puts new twist
on Okinawa case

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By Daniel Smith
Associated Press

KADENA AIR BASE, Japan >> In surprise testimony, a U.S. airman from Hawaii told a court martial today that he feared his girlfriend would be hurt and that word of his homosexuality would get out unless he killed a fellow airman.

Prosecutors have presented testimony from investigators meant to show Airman 1st Class Damien G. Kawai, a 2000 Pahoa High School graduate, had carefully thought out the killing of 20-year-old Airman 1st Class Charles F. Eskew Jr. before allegedly strangling the base chaplain's assistant and smothering him with a pillow.

But Kawai, 19, testified today at his trial on Okinawa's Kadena Air Base that he only killed Eskew after being threatened by a third man. Kawai said he found the man naked in Eskew's room, with Eskew passed out nearby, on the night of the killing Nov. 17.

The man warned he would hurt Kawai's pregnant girlfriend and reveal Kawai's homosexuality, if anyone learned of the incident, Kawai said.

The man, who held a knife, then "told me to finish him (Eskew) off," Kawai told the court. Kawai said he was afraid of the man, and that they had engaged in gay sex before.

Kawai said he strangled Eskew and cut his wrists with a pocket knife before noticing a fourth man standing in the room. Kawai said he left the two men in the room with Eskew's body. The other two men have not been charged with any role in the killing.

Military prosecutors had intended to use testimony from investigators yesterday to back their charge of premeditated murder against Kawai. But Kawai's startling testimony today appeared to complicate the prosecutors' case.

Yesterday, investigator Bret Palmer testified that before carrying out the deed, Kawai intimated to a friend he was "going to have to put him (Eskew) away." Palmer's testimony was based on statements Kawai made while in police custody just four days after Eskew was found dead in his Kadena base dormitory room.

When asked by prosecutors today why his testimony differed from what he told investigators, Kawai said he feared for his girlfriend's welfare and his own reputation.

Kawai has pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of unpremeditated attempted murder, larceny and obstruction of justice. In entering his plea Tuesday, Kawai had denied using a pillow to kill Eskew. But he did confess to additional charges that he stole a television, video cassette recorder, a DVD player, and several DVDs.

If convicted on the prosecutors' charges, Kawai faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment without parole, a dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of pay.

Kawai, a jet engine mechanic, joined the Air Force in September 2000 and was posted to Kadena in April. Eskew, the son of Patti and Charles F. Eskew Sr. of Great Falls, Mont., worked as a jet propulsion specialist at Kadena.