DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Emanuelu Tunoa, on trial for murder, conferred with his attorney, Myles Breiner, right, and Kim Van Horn yesterday during a break in the trial. Deputy prosecutor Albert Cook is representing the state before Judge Karl Sakamoto.

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Suspect rejects accounts
he killed man on
Waipahu bridge

A Waipahu man accused of fatally shooting another man allegedly over money says he is the victim of "mistaken identity."

Emanuelu Tunoa, 27, went on trial yesterday in Circuit Court on charges of second-degree murder and firearm offenses for allegedly shooting Tuputala Esau in the early-morning hours of March 29, 2003, at a bridge on Leokane Street where they and other acquaintances had gathered to drink.

"He couldn't have shot Tuputala Esau, because he was drunk and unconscious in his car at the time of the shooting," said defense attorney Myles Breiner during opening statements.

Breiner said there is no physical evidence -- neither fingerprints, gunshot residue, nor a weapon -- to tie his client to the shooting, "other than four people who have reason to lie said Emanuelu Tunoa did it."

But Deputy Prosecutor Albert Cook said several witnesses were on the bridge that morning, including Tunoa's younger brother, when Tunoa unexpectedly walked up to Esau and shot him with a shotgun three times at close range, hitting him in the chest, face and back.

Patrick Faapito testified yesterday that he was standing next to his cousin Esau on the bridge before Tunoa opened fire with a sawed-off shotgun. Faapito said Tunoa kept demanding "Where's my money?" and fired after Esau told him he thought the debt was paid.

Esau, who was not armed and held only a can of Bud Light, had done nothing to provoke or threaten Tunoa before he was shot, said Faapito, who fled after the first shot and after seeing the big hole in his cousin's chest.

Faapito said a month before the shooting, he was with Esau at a friend's house when Tunoa arrived and said if Esau would fight him, his debt would be erased. Esau had owed Tunoa $140, Faapito said. Esau apparently won the fight, knocking Tunoa unconscious with a punch to the face.

Faapito said he initially did not want to go to the bridge before the shooting, telling Esau, "(Tunoa) probably not finished with you yet." But they went anyway.

After the second shot, another man with Tunoa known to the group as "Silent" allegedly kicked Esau in the face, Cook said. After firing the third shot, Tunoa allegedly attempted to throw Esau over the bridge but was stopped by two others in the group, Cook said. The wounded Esau was driven to a hospital, where he died.

Breiner said the police investigation into the murder, headed by homicide Detective Sheryl Sunia, was handled ineptly, with the crime scene not properly processed and witnesses not thoroughly questioned.

He said the police were too ready to accept the statements of prosecution witnesses, who have motive to lie and were so intoxicated at the time of the shooting that their testimony is "utterly worthless."

If convicted of second-degree murder, Tunoa faces life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.

Tunoa, along with members of a gang known as Hamo Cyde, was found guilty in 1996 for his role in the fatal beating of a fellow gang member. He had been charged with second-degree murder but was convicted of the lesser charge of second-degree assault.