Judge approves charges against alleged shooter BY DENNIS WILKEN TGI Staff Writer Monday morning, in an emotional faceoff between the defendant and his accusers, Kaua`i District Court Judge Calvin K. Murashige found there was probable cause for all six charges
Judge approves charges against alleged shooter
BY DENNIS WILKEN
TGI
Staff Writer
Monday morning, in an emotional faceoff between the defendant
and his accusers, Kaua`i District Court Judge Calvin K. Murashige found there
was probable cause for all six charges against alleged Hanama’ulu murderer
Howard I. Giddens.
Giddens was bound over to Circuit Court, where early
next week he’s expected to enter a plea through his attorney, public defender
James Itamura.
Giddens, who remains in Kaua`i Community Correctional Center
in lieu of $500,000 bond, is charged with attempted first-degree murder,
second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and three lesser felonies.
The charges stemmed from a shooting spree in Hanama’ulu Sept. 18 in which
one man, 42-year-old Colan Fernandes, died, and Nelson Cuba Jr., 49, was
wounded.
Shackled, chained and wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, Giddens was
in Murashige’s court yesterday morning when Cuba testified how the defendant
allegedly shot him at Hanama’ulu Beach Park.
Cuba, who said he has been
living out of his truck at the park for about a month since breaking up with
his girlfriend, described the shooting in a steady voice.
“He came up to
me, said `Hey, pop,’ (with) a mean look and shot me,” said Cuba, his left wrist
still bandaged from the attack.
At this point in Cuba’s testimony, Giddens
began challenging his statements. Cuba talked back to the defendant and the two
men locked eyes.
Both men were still glaring at each other when an
audience member said something hostile to Giddens.
“Mr. Giddens, unless you
restrain yourself I will have you removed from this courtroom,” Murashige
threatened.
Giddens subsided but continued to mutter throughout the
remainder of Cuba’s testimony.
After Cuba stepped down, the accused turned
sideways in his seat and remained in that posture throughout the remaining
witnesses’ testimony.
Kenneth Emerson, who lives on Ho`ohana Street, close
to where Fernandes lived, said he witnessed the fatal shooting from about 15
feet away.
Fernandes was sitting in his garage, Emerson testified, when
Giddens, cursing Fernandes and accusing him of stealing his video camera,
approached him carrying what Emerson described as a rifle.
Fernandes’
“knees were buckling and he was going down,” Emerson testified.
Emerson
said he ran to avoid being shot himself.
“I was right in the line of fire,”
he said.
Kaua’i Police detective Sam Sheldon testified that while bagging
Giddens’ hands for prints after he’d surrendered, the accused made a
“spontaneous statement.”
“`You guys got to understand I’m protecting my
family,’ ” Sheldon quoted Giddens as saying.
Sheldon said Giddens claimed
that some of his neighbors were in a conspiracy against him and were using
video cameras to observe his movements. Giddens lived on the same street as his
victim.
During Sheldon’s testimony, Giddens began sobbing.
When
arrested, in addition to the shotgun he allegedly used on Cuba and Fernandes,
Giddens had a backpack full of shotgun shells, according to
authorities.
Forensic pathologist Dr. Anthony Manoukian, of Maui, who
performs autopsies for the counties of Kaua`i, Hawai`i, Molokai and Lanai, told
the court that Fernandes died from multiple shotgun wounds with injuries to his
heart and his right lung.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at
245-3681 (ext. 252) and dwilken@pulitzer.net
