Beating case suspects
deny they meant to kill
Two men say they assaulted a 21-year-old California visitor in what prosecutors described as a "savage, savage beating," leaving him in a coma, but had no intention of killing him.
Solomon Kahalewai, 24, and Christopher Hicks, 20, went on trial yesterday for second-degree attempted murder for beating and kicking Ivan Kaloyanov on Atkinson Drive behind the Hawai'i Convention Center in the early morning hours of May 24.
To this day, Kaloyanov does not understand why he ended up in the Queen's Medical Center after he and friend Daniel Luna left the Blue Tropix nightclub on Kapiolani Boulevard just after 2 a.m., said Deputy Prosecutor Barry Kemp.
Kaloyanov took the stand yesterday and vaguely recalled being in a confrontation with a bald-headed man bigger than him and being head-butted outside the nightclub just after it closed. Earlier, he had been talking with a woman who got into a car that the bald man had emerged from.
Kaloyanov said he does not recall being disrespectful to the woman or doing anything to provoke the bald man, later identified as Johnston Kapua. All he remembers is going to another club with Luna, being told it was closed, then waking up in the hospital.
Luna, who fled when they were confronted on Atkinson Drive by the bald man and two others later identified as Kahalewai and Hicks, returned to find his friend lying unconscious on the ground in a large pool of blood, twitching and gurgling.
Kaloyanov suffered a broken jaw, multiple facial fractures, a fractured skull and bleeding in the brain. Doctors did not know at the time whether he was going to live. Kaloyanov was in the hospital for nearly a month before returning to California.
Since the incident, Kaloyanov said he can no longer work as a lifeguard and missed the beginning of the semester at Diablo Valley College. He also has ringing in his ears and redness in his eyes that come and go. Hearing in his left ear is impaired.
Kemp said Kahalewai aided in the beating.
Richard Hoke, attorney for Kahalewai, said Kahalewai is only guilty of punching Kaloyanov in the stomach twice after being kicked by the victim, who was flailing on the ground.
"He wasn't trying to kill him or help someone kill him," Hoke said.
He said Kahalewai lied to police in his first statement because "he was afraid to rat out Johnston Kapua," a neighbor who is older by 10 years.
The confrontation between Kaloyanov and Kapua began apparently because Kaloyanov was trying to "pick up" Kapua's nephew's girlfriend and her friend, Hoke said.
Deputy public defender Walter Rodby said Hicks told the truth when he told police that he struck Kaloyanov three times while he lay on the roadway and kicked him once but had no intent to kill.
Passing motorists are expected to testify they saw Kapua "stomping" on Kaloyanov's head even after Kahalewai and Hicks were back in their car. The two told Kapua, "Enough already," but Kapua "was in such a rage he couldn't even control himself," Rodby said. Kapua continued to rant and rave, saying something to the effect of "See what happens when you mess with my family."
Rodby said Kahalewai and Hicks, who are close friends and work together, turned themselves in about 12 hours after the beating. Kapua had to be found and arrested. He will go to trial next month.
The case is being tried by city prosecutors but is being held in U.S. District Court because the courtroom can accommodate two juries simultaneously, one panel for each defendant.
Both defendants allegedly made statements implicating themselves and each other. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a defendant is deprived of his Sixth Amendment right to confront an accuser when the confession of a co-defendant who decides not to testify is admitted.
Because of that ruling, Kemp asked for two juries so that only the jury for Kahalewai will hear the statement he made. Likewise, only the jury for Hicks will hear the statement that Hicks gave.