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Maximum term
sought for Aki
Vincent Indreginal says he only wants two things from the man responsible for the death of his 11-year-old daughter, Kahealani.
Be a man and tell the truth.
But, Indreginal said, he and his family got only lies and more lies from Christopher Aki during a parole hearing yesterday.
"If he would just admit it, maybe we can at least start to forgive him, but if he's still gonna lie, how can we do that?" said Indreginal as he stood outside the Halawa Community Correctional Center.
Indreginal earlier had asked the Hawaii Paroling Authority to order Aki, 21, to serve the maximum 20 years behind bars for his role in the death of Kahealani, an Aiea Elementary School sixth-grader who died almost two years ago at Keaiwa Heiau State Park in Aiea.
"I think anything less than the max is unfair to my family and to my daughter," said the soft-spoken Indreginal.
Parole board Chairman Albert Tufono told Aki and Indreginal's family that they will issue a decision in the next few weeks on how long Aki must serve before he can seek parole.
In a small basement room at the Halawa prison, Indreginal, Kahealani's mother, Lehua Tumbaga, and other family members faced Aki together, many for the first time since his arrest and conviction. They glared at him as he acknowledged he never should have taken their daughter to the park in the first place, but denied hurting her.
"I'm sorry I wasn't truthful to you guys in the beginning -- but I was scared and I'm sorry for the pain you have gone through and hope in time you will forgive me for what I've done," he said.
A jury convicted Aki in May of manslaughter for his role in the death of Kahealani, the younger half-sister of his then-longtime girlfriend, Tanya Mamala Tumbaga. The girl's decomposed body was found Dec. 13, 2002, at the park -- three days after she disappeared from the Halawa Housing complex where she lived.
Aki's attorney, Todd Eddins, said the real motive for the girl's death was not "ice" as the prosecution had argued at trial, but a sexual motive.
Aki took responsibility for driving her up to the park that day -- purportedly to confront her uncle about touching her inappropriately -- but he continues to deny he killed her and blames the uncle, Dennis Cacatian, a convicted rapist.
Aki claims he falsely confessed because he was afraid of Cacatian, who Aki alleged threatened to kill him and his family if he told anyone how the girl died.
Prosecutor Peter Carlisle described Aki as a "self-serving, self-possessed liar," who lied not only to the girl's family when he knew she was dead, how she died and where she could be found, but to police by falsely accusing two acquaintances and later the girl's uncle of killing her. Cacatian has denied any involvement in her death and invoked his constitutional right not to testify at Aki's trial.
Because of Aki's deception, failure to take complete responsibility for his actions, and "mostly for the horrible, lonely and cruel way an 11-year-old child was killed, the only sentence that is appropriate for this defendant is 20 out of 20 years," Carlisle said.
