Judge ‘whipsawed’ by plea change

In the Pali Golf Course murders, a defendant withdraws his plea

Rodney Joseph Jr., Kevin Gonsalves and Ethan Motta admitted to daytime shootings in 2004 that killed two men and wounded a third, but Joseph withdrew his guilty plea yesterday and the two others are expected to follow suit.

U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway rescheduled Joseph's trial for September.

All three men pleaded guilty in February to murder and other charges for their roles in a struggle between security factions for a gambling operation.

But Joseph and Gonsalves were to receive prison sentences of 27 1/2 years while Motta was to receive a prison sentence of between 20 and 27 1/2 years.

Mollway said she could not find that the three men provided substantial assistance to the government — a standard to be met before giving them less than the mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison.

Under their plea agreements, Joseph and Gonsalves were not required to testify against anyone else, and Motta was not required to cooperate with the government.

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Rodney Joseph Jr., one of three men pleading guilty to murder in connection with brazen 2004 daytime shootings at the Pali Golf Course, withdrew his plea yesterday after a federal judge refused to accept one of the terms of his plea agreement.

The other two defendants, Kevin Gonsalves and Ethan Motta, are also expected to withdraw their guilty pleas.

U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway rescheduled Joseph's trial for September.

All three men pleaded guilty on the eve of trial in February to murder and other charges for their roles in a violent struggle between factions providing security for an illegal gambling operation on Oahu. The shootings left two men dead and one injured.

Gonsalves and Joseph admitted to shooting Romelius Corpuz Jr. to death on Jan. 7, 2004, in the golf course parking lot. Motta admitted to murder in the shooting death of Lepo Taliese and for the attempted murder of Tinoimalu Sao.

A federal murder conviction carries a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison, and there is no parole under federal law.

Joseph and Gonsalves were to receive prison sentences of 27 1/2 years, according to their plea agreements. Motta was to receive a prison sentence of between 20 and 27 1/2 years in his plea agreement.

To abide by those conditions, Mollway would have had to find that the three men provided substantial assistance to the government. But she said she could not.

Mollway said she found it troubling that the plea agreements for Joseph and Gonsalves explicitly say they were not required to testify against anyone else. Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Brady said the defendants insisted on that provision because none of them wanted to be considered rats.

Motta's plea agreement makes no mention of cooperating with the government.

Brady and Joseph's lawyer, Reginald Minn, told Mollway in court yesterday that Joseph, Gonsalves and Motta were each responsible for the other two pleading guilty by pleading guilty themselves. They said the three men were either going to plead guilty together or go to trial together.

Minn and the lawyers for Gonsalves and Motta also said in a joint declaration that their clients' guilty pleas encouraged Kai Ming Wang, who hired the three men, to plead guilty to conspiring to operate an illegal gambling operation.

However, when Mollway granted Wang a shorter-than-normal prison sentence in May, it was in part because the government said Wang had provided assistance in the case. At sentencing, Brady told her Wang agreed to testify against his co-defendants, suggesting it was his guilty plea that encouraged the other three to also plead guilty.

"I'm pretty clearly whipsawed by this," Mollway said.

Minn said only after Joseph, Gonsalves and Motta signed their plea agreements did they realize they needed to show they provided substantial assistance to the government to qualify for a sentence shorter than life in prison.