Attorney says
suspect’s wife was
the real killerThe prosecution notes that
the suspect confessed three times
HILO >> A Big Island jury is deliberating today whether retired farming researcher Tetsuya "Grizzly" Yamada killed his former wife and stepdaughter with a shotgun in 1996 after the ex-wife made racial insults against him and his then-wife.
Yamada confessed three times to killing his ex-wife, Carla Russell, 50, and his stepdaughter Rachel De Cambra, 23, Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Hashizaki told jurors yesterday during closing arguments. Firearms evidence also pointed to Yamada being the killer, Hashizaki said.
Defense attorney Gerard Lee Loy told jurors Yamada confessed to the killings to protect his wife at the time, Puanani Haili, the real killer. The firearms evidence does not point to Yamada, he said.
"The guy took the hit for his wife," Lee Loy said.
Haili has since died.
Yamada, 67, was tried and found guilty of manslaughter in 1999, but the state Supreme Court ordered a new trial, saying the jury was given improper instructions.
Police found Russell's body outdoors on concrete pavement. They found De Cambra inside a walk-in closet.
Hashizaki said police found three particles of "gunshot residue" on the back of Yamada's hands three hours after the shooting. It was surprising they found any residue, since it falls off skin and clothing easily, he said.
Lee Loy replied that they should have found a lot more if Yamada was the real killer.
Yamada's right eye is glass, he said. His only good eye is his left eye.
To look down the barrel of the shotgun to shoot anybody, he would have had to cradle it in his left arm, exposing clothing on his chest to residue blown out of the breech of the weapon, Lee Loy said.
Investigators found no residue on his clothing.
Yamada also allegedly shot De Cambra in a closet 4 feet wide and 7 feet long, yet there was no blood on his clothing, Lee Loy said.
Hashizaki said Yamada was simply too far away for blood to spatter onto Yamada's clothes.
Lee Loy said police ignored or lost evidence that suggested Haili was the killer.
When police arrived, she blurted out, "Shoot me, shoot me," he said.
An officer suggested over police radio that another officer "bag" her hands to preserve any residue on them. But she had already washed her hands.
A police recording of the "bag" conversation has a gap in it with the words missing, and an entire police report in the case is missing, Lee Loy said.
"This case should not be prosecuted. The system needs to know that. This is not right," he said.