Suspect charged in Tantalus killings

Adam Mau-Goffredo is charged with murder, kidnapping, burglary and other crimes

Prosecutors have charged the suspect in a triple murder at the Tantalus lookout and a home-invasion robbery Thursday night with 18 counts of murder, robbery, kidnapping and other crimes.

Adam Koon Wai Mau-Goffredo, 23, is being held on $25 million bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow in District Court.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Mau-Goffredo could spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Mau-Goffredo is charged with first-degree murder because he allegedly killed more than one person. He is also charged with three counts of second-degree murder, three counts of first-degree kidnapping, one count of first-degree burglary, one count of first-degree robbery, seven counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony, one count of place to keep a firearm, and one count of first-degree theft.

Prosecutors believe Mau-Goffredo, who is a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, killed 50-year-old taxicab driver Manh Nguyen and Jason and Colleen Takamori, both 53, a Kapahulu couple who police said were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

After the shootings, police said Mau-Goffredo got into Nguyen's cab and drove to the Round Top Drive home of Joe and Francine Gedan, where he allegedly forced his way into their home and tied up the couple and a housekeeper at gunpoint.

In an affidavit filed last night with the charges, Honolulu Police Officer Vincent Ho-Ching tied the murders to the home invasion, noting that Nguyen's taxi was found at the Gedans' home. The Gedans identified Mau-Goffredo as their assailant.

Ho-Ching also said Mau-Goffredo was arrested at a police checkpoint driving down Tantalus on the wrong side of the road and trying to pass other vehicles.

Ho-Ching said he and two other officers stopped Mau-Goffredo at gunpoint at the checkpoint. Mau-Goffredo was driving a green Jaguar that was stolen from the Gedans' home, Ho-Ching wrote.

Police sources said Friday they believe the gun used in the shootings was reported stolen from Mau-Goffredo's caretaker. However, police said Friday they had not yet recovered the weapon.

Jim Fulton, a spokesman for the Honolulu Prosecutor's Office, would not comment about whether police had located the gun.The affidavit says a .45-caliber pistol magazine was found in Mau-Goffredo's pants pocket.

Neighbors continued to place flowers last night at a makeshift memorial at the house where Jason and Colleen Takamori lived and where Colleen had grown up.

There were also expressions of condolence for the Takamoris and their only child, Lianne, 23.

"We pray for you to be at peace," one card next to a kukui nut lei read.

Another card read, "I am so sorry. God bless you and may they rest in peace." Below it was an open Bud Light beer bottle.

Neal Takamori, the stepbrother of Jason Takamori, said last night that his family has been so focused on consoling each other that they hadn't fully realized a possible connection between the murder of Jason, Colleen and Nguyen and the Round Top Drive kidnapping and robbery.

"As we were listening to the news, we were just wondering what the connection was," Neal Takamori said last night. "We were wondering if whoever was responsible was apprehended."

---