Rivals' fights to control security
at illegal game dens lead to ...
FIRST IN A SERIES
In Song Kim stood on the second-floor balcony of a Kapiolani Boulevard massage parlor about 3 a.m. in August and watched a brown van pull into the parking lot, circle and stop. A red Camaro followed and parked next to it, according to court testimony.
CORRECTION
Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2003>> Pali Golf Course shooting victim Romelius Corpuz was the brother of Tinoimolo Sao, who was critically injured in the Jan. 7 incident. A Sunday A1 story and an A8 list of key players incorrectly reported that Sao and shooting victim Lepo Utu Taliese were brothers.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at fbridgewater@starbulletin.com.Seconds later, the doors popped open and a rival faction of men jumped out of both vehicles.
As the men rushed him, Kim testified he jumped to a lower stair landing. But the gang caught up to him. As Kim lay in the parking lot, they kicked and beat him with a blue aluminum baseball bat, he testified. Both of his legs were broken.
Last month, Kim, known on the street as "Pae Ho," testified in the Circuit Court assault trial of an alleged leader of the rival gang, Hee Sung Yoo, also known as "Korean Johnny," about the violence among factions that police say are competing to control protection over illegal gambling rooms.
The underworld turf war exploded into public view Jan. 7 with the fatal shooting of two men in broad daylight at the Pali Golf Course.
Kim, sitting in the witness stand with both legs encased in bulky braces, told the jury Jan. 22 about his beating and referred to the golf-course murder of Lepo Utu Taliese. He told how he paid with his legs, but Taliese paid with more.
"My friend is dead," Kim, 43, told the court.
Taliese, 44, was shot several times in the chest and head in front of stunned golfers. He staggered across the fairway and fell near the first tee. Taliese's brother-in-law, Lawrence "Romelius" Corpuz, 39, was shot fatally in the head. And Taliese's brother, Tinoimolo Sao, 42, who was shot in the head, remains hospitalized.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
A man walks down the steps of a Kapiolani Boulevard building where In Song Kim says he was attacked Aug. 3 by a rival faction. Both of Kim's legs were broken in the attack. Police say factions are fighting over controlling security of illegal gambling rooms, and that such tensions led to shootings at the Pali Golf Course on Jan. 7 that killed two men.
Rodney V. Joseph, 35, of Waianae; Ethan Motta, 34, of Hilo; and Kevin A. "Pancho" Gonsalves, 33, of Oahu have been indicted 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.
Kim's testimony in Yoo's assault trial, along with interviews and other court documents, paints a shadowy picture of Oahu's illegal gambling world and the violent struggle among protection factions.
The gambling rooms, which sometimes move nightly to evade detection, offer casino-style games on several tables of baccarat, blackjack and pepito, a 13-card poker game where players must win two of three hands against the dealer.
Testimony in the Yoo trial last month and other court documents suggest that Kim and Taliese, along with the two other victims in the Pali shooting, belonged to one faction at odds with another group that included Yoo, Joseph, Motta, Gonsalves and Robert Kaialau, a strip club bouncer with a tough reputation.
On Friday, Kim's attorney, Reginald Minn, said Kim was not involved in doing security at the time he was beaten. Minn said that Kim knew a warrant was out for his arrest for violating his federal supervised release by interacting with felons and illegal gambling operations.
"He had been approached to do security, but he couldn't do it (because of his supervised release), so he introduced them to Lepo and was not involved," Minn said. "So he felt he wasn't in the picture and got beat up for no reason."
At his assault trial last month, Yoo said he was not part of Kaialau's gang and knew Kaialau only because he had worked as a bouncer at Exotic Nights. He said he was at home with his parents in their apartment on Halekauwila Street the night of the beating.
Kaialau faces trial on assault charges April 5 in what investigators say is a related incident at an illegal game room on Young Street. According to that indictment, Kaialau allegedly beat Sao with a baseball bat and a chair before throwing a microwave oven on his head.
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Immediately after the Jan. 7 shootings at the Pali Golf Course, police checked all players as they left the course. Craig Ono, 89, from Kailua was escorted off by a police officer after finishing his round.
The indictment said Kaialau allegedly headed a group of men that included Solomona "Solo" Nakagawa, who also faces trial April 5 on assault charges for allegedly attacking Raymond Gomes, another security guard working with Sao, on July 30. Nakagawa allegedly hit Gomes with a bat and a chair before stabbing him several times and throwing hot water from a tea canister on him.
The Pali shootings allegedly occurred after both groups attended the funeral of Gomes' father.
Law enforcement close to the investigation believe the July 30 fight over Young Street and the Aug. 3 Kapiolani assault on Kim and Jung See Han, another security worker, are both linked to the Pali shootings.
At trial, Han testified that Kim "got me a job working security." But on the stand, Kim, who demonstrated knowledge of the factions, tried to distance himself from direct involvement, noting he was on federal probation, which bars interaction with felons and illegal activities, at the time of the alleged incidents.
Meanwhile, Yoo's testimony suggested a link between Kim and Taliese.
"Pae Ho (Kim) has a big rep with guys in jail and outside," Yoo testified. "Lepo Utu (Taliese) was a big guy. He ran security for Pae Ho."
The assault on Kim and Han "was the result of opening the Young Street game (after the Kapiolani game was raided by police and closed by a rival group)," Deputy Prosecutor Franklin Pacarro said during Yoo's trial. "The motive was a power struggle for doing security between Yoo's faction and Lepo's faction."
Pacarro argued the beating of Kim and Han was "a message: We're going to hurt you. You're involved in this (protection business) and we want it."
The two factions fighting to control protection have had several fights. Last October, the factions fought after one group opened a game room in a Pearl City warehouse off Moanalua Road, according to a source close to the players.
Han testified that Yoo's group sent three men in ski masks over to the Young Street game before the July 30 attack and shot holes in the door.
Interviews with law enforcement and attorneys familiar with the players suggest the rivalry is over games outside of Chinatown. They also say the gambling operations are roughly organized along ethnic lines. Chinese shareholders tend to own the games and rely on Korean groups to manage them, which includes arranging for protection.
Protection is run by Polynesian groups who have no allegiances to particular game owners, but try to squeeze as much money out of as many game rooms as possible. They offer to protect the game owners against competitors who might disrupt or shut down their games.
"What's strange is that these game rooms feel compelled to pay organized crime to protect them, when actually they are paying to be protected from the group that says it will protect them," said Honolulu Police Capt. Kevin Lima, who works for the vice and narcotics division.
"And what's really bizarre is the game room will pay more than one group at a time to protect them, so they could be paying competing (protection) factions," Lima said.
Some police and attorneys familiar with the players say the game owners and those providing protection are not aligned in a hierarchy that goes from owners to game room managers to the doormen doing security. Instead, the men doing security have shifting alliances as they try to pick up as many protection jobs as possible, which means putting other groups out of business.
In court, Pacarro said Kim was taking the stand despite possible threats from Joseph and Motta warning him not to testify against Yoo.
It is unclear whether Kim was actually threatened. Having violated federal parole, Kim was being held in federal detention. On the eve of his testimony, he was transferred to a holding cell at the Oahu Community Correctional Center. When he got there, the alleged killers of Taliese were being held in the same place. From his cell, he could see and hear Joseph and Motta.
Whether such threats occurred or not, Kim was moved to protective custody.
During the trial, Pacarro told jurors that Yoo wanted to make more than a baccarat dealer; he wanted to manage security. Yoo testified that some illegal operations made $100,000 to $200,000 a night. And while the security guys watching the door make about $80 in cash a shift, the men in charge of protection could make as much as $30,000 a month.
According to Han's testimony, Kim and Han were on the second floor of 1687 Kapiolani Blvd. talking to "a lady from the massage parlor."
A large brown SUV pulled into the parking lot, circled and parked. Han testified that minutes later a red Camaro pulled into the parking lot and three males, including Yoo, jumped out. Someone handed Yoo a blue aluminum bat. About six to eight large men climbed out of the SUV.
Kim and Han testified that Yoo pointed at them, shouted some orders and that men began rushing up both flights of steps leading to the second floor. Han testified that Kim jumped from the second floor to the landing while Han fled down the stairs and across Kapiolani to the Blue Tropix nightclub.
Han testified Yoo caught up to him and hit him over the head with the bat about four times. Han said he tried to protect his head with his hands but he broke his thumb and that at least seven staples were needed to close the gash on his head.
According to Kim's testimony, Yoo was allied with Kaialau.
Kaialau has been questioned in the unsolved disappearance of Carlos Carrillo, a promoter at the former Evolution night club in Waikiki, who allegedly was last seen fighting with Kaialau in July 2000 over a woman.
Kim also testified that they used baseball bats to smash the windows of his white sport utility vehicle.
Yoo's defense attorney, Jonathan Burge, dismissed Kim and Han's testimony in his closing argument, saying the state's case rests on the testimony of "two people who lied."
In his closing, Burge looked at the jurors and, pointing to his skinny client dressed in gray pants and a ribbed gray Armani sweater, asked: "Is this the Don Corleone of the Korean Mafia? Does the Don Corleone of Korean protection live with his mother and father?"
The jury took less than two hours on Jan. 26 to find Yoo guilty of assaulting Kim and Han and of criminal property damage for smashing the SUV. Yoo was found not guilty of stealing Kim's fanny pack that contained $4,800. Yoo is awaiting sentencing.
According to the indictment in the July 30 Young Street fight, Kaialau and Nakagawa, who has worked as a bouncer for the Pipeline Café, walked in the Young Street game about 11:26 p.m. with a group of men. Several of Kaialau's group were wearing navy T-shirts with "HPD" and "Police" emblazoned in yellow letters.
The indictment alleges that Kaialau and Nakagawa knocked Sao off of a ladder onto a metal table and then threw him onto the floor. Kaialau allegedly hit Sao with an aluminum bat on his neck, ribs and back. Kaialau also allegedly hit Sao with a chair. As Kaialau walked away, several men stepped in to continue the assault on Sao. Kaialau returned, allegedly carrying a microwave oven that he then threw on Sao's neck and head, rendering him unconscious, according to the indictment.
Meanwhile, Nakagawa allegedly led an assault on Gomes, who was beaten with a bat and a chair. Nakagawa allegedly stabbed him several times with a knife and then threw hot water from a nearby tea canister on him.
Kaialau, who was in court last week to get a delay in his trial, declined to comment to the Star-Bulletin. Attorneys for Kaialau and Nakagawa also declined comment.
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The players
PALI GOLF COURSE SHOOTING
>> Rodney V. Joseph, 35, of Waianae, a professional kick-boxer, was indicted along with Ethan Motta and Kevin Gonsalves on charges of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder in the Jan. 7 Pali Golf Course shootings.>> Ethan "Malu" Motta, 34, of Hilo, was charged in 1998 and indicted in 2002 for gambling offenses. Both cases were eventually dropped.
>> Kevin A. "Pancho" Gonsalves, 33, the last suspect in the Pali shootings, was captured in Nanakuli Jan. 20 after an intensive manhunt.
>> Lepo Utu Taliese, 44, died in the Pali shootings in an attack that police say was over providing protection to illegal gambling rooms.
>> Lawrence "Romelius" Corpuz, 39, also died in the Pali shooting and is the brother-in-law of Lepo Utu Taliese.
>> Tinoimolo "Tino" Sao, 42, is the brother of Lepo Utu Taliese. Sao was severely wounded in the Pali shooting. Sao was allegedly attacked and beaten by Solomona Nakagawa and Robert Kaialau while working security for Taliese on July 30 at a Young Street gambling room.
YOUNG STREET ASSAULT
>> Robert Kaialau III, 34, of Waianae, faces trial April 5 for allegedly beating Tino Sao on July 30 at a Young Street game room. Law enforcement sources believe the beating is related to the Pali Golf Course shootings and is part of an ongoing turf war among factions who want to provide protection to illegal gambling operations.>> Solomona "Solo" Nakagawa, 29, faces trial April 5 for allegedly beating Raymond Gomes with a bat and a chair before stabbing him with a paring knife and throwing hot water onto him at the Young Street game room.
>> Raymond Gomes was allegedly working security with Tino Sao at the Young Street game room when the two were attacked. The suspects and victims in the Pali shootings attended the funeral of Gomes' father just before they met in the parking lot of the Pali Golf Course.
KAPIOLANI BOULEVARD ASSAULT
>> In Song Kim, 43, known on the street as "Pae Ho," is friends with Lepo Utu Taliese. Both his legs were broken in a fight Aug. 3 on Kapiolani Boulevard that was apparently part of a turf war over providing protection to illegal gambling rooms.>> Jung See Han, 24, of Honolulu, testified he was hired by In Song Kim to provide protection to illegal gambling rooms on Kapiolani Boulevard. He was beaten in the Kapiolani fight.
>> Hee Sung Yoo or "Korean Johnny," 34, was convicted last month of assault and criminal property damage for the attack on In Song Kim and Jung See Han and smashing an SUV.
