High-profile trials are coming soon to the Kaua’i County Courthouse. Six cases of murder and attempted murder are slated to go to trial in Fifth Circuit Court between Feb. 4 and March 19. But some may never actually reach the
High-profile trials are coming soon to the Kaua’i County Courthouse.
Six cases of murder and attempted murder are slated to go to trial in Fifth Circuit Court between Feb. 4 and March 19.
But some may never actually reach the trial stage if judicial history repeats and defense lawyers and prosecutors agree to plea bargains.
First up for trial, starting Feb. 4, is the case of Howard I. Giddens, 28, of Hanamaulu. Giddens is accused of killing a neighbor and slightly injuring another Hanamaulu man on a shooting rampage Sept. 18, 2000.
Giddens, who was has spent the past year and a half in jails on Kaua’i and Oahu, is charged with murder in the second degree and attempted first-degree murder.
His attorney, public defender James Itamura, sought many medical opinions about Giddens’ mental state and competence to stand trail. Kaua’i County Prosecuting Attorney Mike Soong matched Itamura psychiatrist for psychiatrist, which according to both sides explains the 17-month gap between the alleged crimes and the trial.
Also coming in February:
– Christina Robles, 22, is set for trial on Feb. 19. She is accused of murdering her newborn son and then putting the body in a garbage can outside her parents’ Koloa home.
Robles, charged with second degree murder, is represented by a former county deputy prosecutor, Al Castillo. She has remained free on $10,000 bail since the alleged murder.
– Feb. 26 is the scheduled start of the second-degree murder trial of William Lowell McCrory, 45, accused of the stabbing death of his alleged drinking buddy, Brent Kerr, 44, outside a van near Kalapaki Beach.
After the Oct. 26, 2001 murder, McCrory allegedly dragooned another self-professed alcoholic, Billy Pierce, 48, into helping him move Kerr’s body, which was dumped in some bushes fronting the old Coco Palms Hotel in Wailua. Kerr’s corpse was found two days after the murder by a passer by.
Pierce, who was not charged in the crime, is expected to testify against McCrory.
McCrory has remained in custody at Kaua’i Community Correctional Center in lieu of $50,000 bail.
March 4 is the date for the attempted murder trial of double amputee Mark Vargas, 47. The one-legged and one-armed Vargas is accused of stabbing a man he claimed was bullying him at a Kekaha housing project.
District Court Judge Trudy Senda did not find probable cause to charge Vargas with attempted murder. She reduced the prosecutors’ original charge to assault. But they took the case to a grand jury, which reinstated the attempted murder charge.
Vargas has remained in the correctional center in lieu of $20,000 bail.
Authorities said Vargas’ alleged victim was hospitalized for weeks after the Nov. 3 knife attack.
Also on the March court docket:
– Jonathan Ibana, 21, is scheduled to go to trial March 11. Ibana, jailed since last August, is charged with attempted murder, kidnapping and felony terroristic threatening. He allegedly stabbed his 14-year-old then-girlfriend three times, after friends said the victim talked about scaling down her relationship before she entered a new school.
– Gerard Silva, a West Side-area man, is slated to go to trial March 19, one year and four days after he allegedly showed up at the Lihu’e headquarters of the county police with a rifle, threatening to kill officers in what some attorneys claim was a suicide-by-cop attempt.
Silva, who is being tried on charges of attempted murder in the first degree, felony terroristic threatening and firearms violations, was wrestled to the ground by two on-duty police officers. His rifle discharged during the wrestling match, but no one was injured.
Silva has been in jail since his arrest.
Six high-profile trials in a seven-week period is rare for Kaua’i. Deputy prosecutor Craig De Costa attributed the logjam to the six murder cases in 2000. They “backed everything up,” he said.
“Usually,” De Costa added, “most of the delays are caused because defendants in these types of cases are facing life in jail, and so the (defense) attorneys want more time to prepare and there are consultations with experts for us and the defense. It’s often scheduling, working around the experts'” availability.
DeCosta refused to comment specifically on how many of the upcoming cases may be plea-bargained, eliminating the need for a trial.
“Usually, out of every 10, one goes to trial, six are pleaded out and three are continued,” he said.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
