RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Pali Golf Course shooting suspect Kevin "Pancho" Gonsalves, left, was brought into the Honolulu police main station cellblock yesterday after being captured in a Nanakuli home. He had eluded police for almost two weeks.
CAPTURED
A fugitive sought in the Jan. 7
Pali shooting is found after nearly two weeks
A fugitive indicted in the Pali Golf Course shooting death of two men was captured in Nanakuli yesterday afternoon after eluding both police and organized crime members for almost two weeks.
Sources close to the investigation said the search for Kevin "Pancho" Gonsalves, 33, involved putting the heat on organized crime and shutting down more than a dozen illegal gambling operations, including gambling rooms in Honolulu and chicken fights on the North Shore and in Waianae, over the last week.
The crackdown was intended to put pressure on the gambling community to encourage Gonsalves to surrender, a police source told the Star-Bulletin.
Police said Gonsalves is one of the gunmen in the Jan. 7 shooting that killed Lepo Utu Taliese and Romelius "Lawrence" Corpuz and critically injured Tinoimalu Sao.
"My heart dropped and I felt really relieved when I got the news that he was caught," said Taliese's fiancée, Ellen Williams. "Now we can know what really happened because I heard this guy knows everything."
Sources said Gonsalves was hiding not only from police but also from organized crime figures, who were allegedly looking to silence him about the shootings.
Police have said the shooting has been linked to a turf war between two factions vying to provide security at underground gambling houses.
Since the search for Gonsalves began, police said they received many tips, through sources, and calls to both 911 and CrimeStoppers, but many were false leads.
Yesterday, however, a tip led police to a Holopono Street residence in Nanakuli where they found Gonsalves hiding under a bed at about 1:20 p.m.
Police Chief Lee Donohue said there were three other people and a baby in the home, but could not say what their relationship to Gonsalves was.
Police questioned the 41-year-old man, his 37-year-old wife and their 16-year-old daughter at the Kapolei police station, but did not arrest them.
"We're thankful for this ending without any violence," said Donohue.
Donohue estimated that the police search for Gonsalves involved 5,000 man-hours at a cost of about $160,000.
Police said no weapons were found during Gonsalves' arrest but police last night were waiting to execute a search warrant at the Nanakuli home.
Police have not located Gonsalves' sister, Catharine "Cats" Gutierrez, who is wanted on a probation-revocation warrant for a drug conviction and was believed to be in hiding with him.
Gonsalves is the third suspect in the Pali Golf Course shootings. A Honolulu grand jury indicted Gonsalves, along with Rodney Joseph Jr., 35, and Ethan Motta, 34, on charges of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder in the shooting of Taliese and Corpuz, and the attempted murder of Sao, as well as firearm charges.
Police would not release Sao's current condition except that he was well enough to have been interviewed by detectives.
Joseph and Motta, both in custody in lieu of $1 million bail, pleaded not guilty to the shootings. Gonsalves is also being held in lieu of $1 million bail and is scheduled to appear in court this morning.
City prosecutors asked the Circuit Court yesterday to hold Joseph and Motta without bail. A hearing on the request has not been scheduled.
