Man is found guilty
in stabbing deathThe Wahiawa man said "ice"
drove him to kill his girlfriend
A Circuit Court jury found a Wahiawa man guilty yesterday of second-degree murder for stabbing his girlfriend to death last year.
The jury deliberated less than two hours and rejected the defense argument that Samie Raspado Calaro, 44, was suffering from an emotional and mental disturbance brought on by long-term use of crystal methamphetamine, or "ice," when he fatally stabbed Ruby Mabanag, 53, at her Eames Street studio on July 27, 2002.
Deputy public defender Karen Nakasone said that Calaro is remorseful for what happened, but they intend to appeal.
During trial, experts concluded that Calaro was clearly psychotic and suffered from voluntary ice-induced psychosis, but it did not affect his ability to distinguish right from wrong.
"The experts said the defendant's voluntary ice use was the sole reason for his psychosis, but the law says you can't use it as a reasonable explanation to kill someone," said deputy prosecutor Scott Bell.
At the close of the two-week trial, the defense conceded that Calaro killed Mabanag and was not insane. Instead, the defense argued, Calaro may have been suffering from an extreme mental and emotional disturbance, a condition that would mean he is guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter rather than murder.
Nakasone said that psychotic symptoms resulting from abusing ice can last months, even years after the person stops using it. She said there was no evidence Calaro had been using ice on the day of the stabbing nor in the months preceding it, but it was clear that he was psychotic.
She cited two instances in the month preceding the stabbing in which Calaro was having hallucinations that someone was out to kill him. A month before the stabbing, he barricaded himself in Mabanag's apartment with knives and had to be coaxed out. And in the three weeks preceding the stabbing, he kept hearing the voice of a distant cousin threatening to kill him.
Calaro has been held in prison since his arrest, unable to post $100,000 bail. Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall ordered him held without bail pending his sentencing Oct. 6. He faces a statutory maximum of life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Members of Mabanag's family who were present during the trial declined comment on the verdict.
