StarBulletin.com

Jury finds cousin guilty in stabbing murder


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POSTED: Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Tyler Condon was on the run from the law on the mainland when he killed his cousin last year in an Ewa townhouse, said Franklin Pacarro Jr., deputy prosecutor.

An Oahu jury found Condon, 24, guilty yesterday of second-degree murder in the July 4, 2007, stabbing death of 28-year-old Jake Ira Hale.

Pacarro said Hale was house-sitting the townhouse unit that belongs to an uncle. Condon wanted to hide out there, but Hale was instructed not to let him, Pacarro said.

Another source of conflict between the cousins, Pacarro said, is that Hale told Condon's girlfriend that his cousin was cheating and wasn't worthy of her.

Condon testified that Hale tried to rape him in the townhouse and he killed his cousin in self-defense.

But Pacarro said Condon attacked Hale as Hale was lying down in bed. Hale had deep stab wounds in the middle and left side of his back. He said Hale got up and received three more stab wounds in his chest, abdomen and side.

Before he died, Hale told two neighbors and a police officer that his cousin Tyler stabbed him.

Pacarro said Condon needed a place to stay because he had been kicked out of two other places.

He said authorities in San Francisco had initiated several cases against Condon, including theft and burglary. In one theft case, close to $60,000 was stolen.

“;His father also filed a theft complaint against him for using the father's information to gain access to some funds,”; Pacarro said.

Condon's lawyer, Eddie Aquino, said there may be some police reports involving his client but there are no cases awaiting prosecution in California.

According to the prosecution and defense, both cousins had been in Hawaii for only a few months at the time of Hale's death.

Hale arrived in February to help raise another cousin's children at Schofield Barracks. Condon arrived in May to also stay at Schofield but was kicked out after some disagreements.