On the morning before her 23-month-old son, Cyrus Belt, plunged off a pedestrian overpass onto the H-1 freeway, the toddler's mother said she went to gamble at an illegal game room downtown and smoked methamphetamine there with her neighbor, the father of the man charged with her son's murder.

Nancy Chanco said she even asked Shelton Higa to lend her some gambling money.

Matthew Higa, 25, Shelton Higa's son, is on trial in state court on second-degree murder charges, accused of causing Belt's death on Jan. 17, 2008, by throwing the toddler off the overpass.

Chanco testified yesterday as a defense witness.

She said she left the Punchbowl-area apartment she shares with her son, boyfriend and father at about 8 a.m. She said she left her son in her father's care.

By 11 a.m., she said, she was at an appointment at Institute for Human Services in Iwilei to apply for rental assistance. After the appointment, Chanco said, she and her boyfriend, Shane Mizusawa, went to Ala Moana “;to get some money.”;

Higa's lawyer, Randy Oyama, asked her how she was going to get money.

  Higa's Father, Belt's Mother Testify

 

Higa's father said one place he got his drugs was from Cyrus' mother.

[ Watch ]

 

“;Steal,”; Chanco said.

When Oyama asked her whether she was going to steal from stores or cars, she said, “;Stores.”;

Witnesses saw Belt falling off the overpass onto the freeway at about 11:40 a.m.

Chanco said she did not learn about her son's death until she returned home in the evening.

Shelton Higa said he learned about the death when he returned home at about 1 p.m.

He said Mizusawa called him later and said Chanco wanted to talk to him. He said he agreed to meet them at a Shell station in Kalihi, but they did not show.

The next morning, Higa said Mizusawa called him and asked for money to pay for a hotel room.

Higa said he met Chanco and Mizusawa through gambling, and they helped him get an apartment for him and his son in their building.

He said Mizusawa gave him rides, and he was with him when Mizusawa committed thefts and sold stolen merchandise.

Higa said he also smoked “;ice”; with Mizusawa and that he and his son even bought drugs from him. He said he later stopped buying drugs from Mizusawa because he was “;ripping us off.”; He said he also confronted Mizusawa and told him to stop selling drugs to his son.

“;Sometimes giving him bunk or take his money and no give him nothing,”; Higa said.

Prosecutor Peter Carlisle and Oyama have completed presenting their cases in the nonjury trial. They will deliver their closing arguments to state Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario on Thursday.