LIHU‘E — A key prosecution witness was granted immunity Monday in 5th Circuit Court, in exchange for testimony on events related to the first-degree murder trial of Vicente Kote Kapika Hilario. The trial started Feb. 4, and is ongoing. Hilario
LIHU‘E — A key prosecution witness was granted immunity Monday in 5th Circuit Court, in exchange for testimony on events related to the first-degree murder trial of Vicente Kote Kapika Hilario. The trial started Feb. 4, and is ongoing.
Hilario is charged with the murder of Aureo Moore, 34, of Kapa‘a, at Anahola Beach Park around 11 a.m. Dec. 17, 2010. He is also charged with second-degree murder in the alternative, retaliating against a witness, intimidating a witness and bribery of a witness.
Prior to the jury being seated, the court granted Angienora Crawford’s motion for transactional immunity. With it, she waived her right to invoke her constitutional right against self-incrimination, as the immunity protects her from anything said during compelled testimony, with the exception of perjury.
Crawford is represented by court-appointed witness attorney Nelson Goo. He said that without immunity, his client would be forced to invoke her right to remain silent.
Chief Judge Randal Valenciano excluded Jens Kyler Hanson-Loo from the courtroom prior to the jury entrance. He may be called to testify at a later date but is not allowed to attend hearings related to the trial.
Hanson-Loo is considered an alibi witness, and although he is not expected to testify that Hilario was in a different location, the testimony is expected to say that Hilario did not shoot the victim, according to the October alibi motion.
Crawford is a state witness. County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Melinda Mendes questioned the 37 year-old witness who now lives in Texas. At the time of the murder she was a stay-at-home mom with three children and a husband who was a plumber.
As a result of an injured shoulder, Crawford said she became addicted to opiate pain medication. She became friends with Moore, who she said was also an addict and a dealer.
The two networked with the community of users to buy pills when they were short. She said Hilario was an expensive supplier that they didn’t go to if there were other options.
Safeway robbery
Crawford said she was angry at Moore for holding out on pills at the time he was robbed at gun-point on Aug. 22, 2010. She said she happened to be crossing the pedestrian bridge between the Waipouli supermarket plazas at the time and witnessed the robbery.
On that day, she was at Safeway Supermarket and was walking to meet her husband and two kids at Foodland Supermarket, she said.
Moore was backed up against a bridge railing with a man she didn’t know right up in his face yelling, “Where is it at? Where is it?” Crawford said. Still mad at Moore, Crawford said she uttered an obscenity at him, and that it was what he deserved.
By the time she reached the end of the bridge, she heard a gunshot, but said she didn’t see a weapon when she glanced back. She said she did not know it was an armed robbery, and told her husband but never called the police, saying she feared it would expose her own illegal drug use.
Crawford and Moore eventually made up, she said, in part because they depended on each other so much for the oxycodone. In the meantime, Hilario’s case as a driver in the armed robbery was dismissed without prejudice.
After the robbery, in her contact with Hilario, she said he offered her pills or cash to say she couldn’t identify the defendant she saw on the bridge. She didn’t accept the offer, saying it was wrong, although she never had to testify.
Crawford said that whenever she spoke with Hilario about pills in the months following the robbery, he requested that she set up a meeting with Moore. She didn’t however, saying it bothered her that he didn’t want Moore to know who he was meeting.
Hilario said he was trying to protect someone very close to him involved in the robbery, she said. He promised cash or pills to set up a meeting.
Hilario was “offering carrots” and not being threatening, she added.
Meeting with Moore
Around Dec. 16, 2010, she said Moore called saying he was experiencing withdrawal symptoms from not maintaining his normal dosage of pain medication. He would need some pills soon or would become very ill.
Crawford said she was also reaching withdrawal. With no one else offering pills, she called Hilario, who said he would provide six pills for $90. He called back, perhaps hearing Moore’s voice in the background, she said, and again asked to set up a meeting with Moore.
At first she said Hilario wanted her to bring Moore to Aliomanu. She said that was too secluded and she feared for them “getting into a fight.” Instead, she agreed to bring Moore to Anahola Beach Park, where there was a lifeguard tower and plenty of campers and beachgoers around.
Believing she was just the “middleman,” Crawford made a deal with Moore for one pill in exchange for making the buy. Without anyone at home to watch the kids, she packed them into the truck and went to pick up Moore at Kealia Beach late morning on Dec. 17.
After dropping off Moore at the overlook area of Anahola Beach Park, Crawford said she kept driving on until she saw Hilario’s car in a driveway. He pulled out and she followed him to the soccer fields in Anahola.
Crawford’s children went over to the playground and the two spoke at the pavilion, where Hilario plugged in his cell phone saying the battery was dead. He gave her five pills but wouldn’t take the $100 that Crawford had brought for the exchange, she said.
They left a few minutes later. She watch Hilario make a couple of turns and head in the direction of the park.
Missing information
The strange transaction made her more concerned for Moore’s safety, she said. Now crying, she said that instead of going to the highway, she drove the Anahola loop but could not approach the beach park again after hearing sirens.
Crawford said she feared that if something happened, her addiction would put her at risk for involvement. After hearing word-of-mouth reports, she decided to call Moore’s brother, who Moore had told her they were to meet after the buy.
Mendes asked Crawford about her contact with the police. She called Kaua‘i Police Department on Dec. 19, to tell them she had dropped off Moore at the park but mentioned nothing about the drugs or the alleged meeting with Hilario.
When pressed about the reason why she took so long to tell the complete story to the police, Crawford said she hadn’t been “forthcoming” with information because she didn’t want police to find out about her addiction, and she feared Hilario’s family.
The police told her outright during subsequent interviews that she could face life in prison, unless she provided truthful testimony under immunity at the Jan. 19, 2011, grand jury, she said. By the time of the June 2012 deposition she had been offered immunity by the prosecution, despite felony charges in Texas for theft and heroin possession.
The court in Texas granted Crawford a deferred sentence with a five year probation, according to court testimony. The 60-day jail charge (as part of her deferred sentence rather than a full prison term) helped her to be strong enough to stay clean, she said.
‘Desperate’
When asked by Mendes if she knew David Manaku, Crawford said that she only knew him as a person who was with Hilario on occasion when she bought pills.
In his cross examination, court-appointed defense attorney Keith Shigetomi concentrated on addiction, betrayal and a series of lies to discredit Crawford’s testimony. He mentioned her lack of action in the August 2010 Safeway armed robbery, and also that she was angry that Moore had held out on her prior to that robbery.
Shigetomi questioned why would Crawford not take the free money and pills in exchange for not identifying a suspect in that robbery that she said she couldn’t identify anyway.
It didn’t feel right, was Crawford’s answer.
Shigetomi emphasized that in the time since Crawford was told she had immunity, she has racked up felony thefts totaling $1,840, and replaced the oxycodone she can’t get in Texas with heroine as another opiate.
Do you usually take your kids along on drug buys? Shigetomi added. No, she said, no one was at home, and she and Moore were “desperate.”
Crawford will continue her testimony today. The trial will continue through the week except for Thursday.
• Tom LaVenture, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or tlaventure@thegardenisland.com.
