LIHUE — A Lihue man who was stabbed seven times in a parking lot last month had an intense argument with his pregnant ex-girlfriend just moments before his death, according to testimony at the preliminary hearing for Francisco Keola Manuel.
LIHUE — A Lihue man who was stabbed seven times in a parking lot last month had an intense argument with his pregnant ex-girlfriend just moments before his death, according to testimony at the preliminary hearing for Francisco Keola Manuel.
Details of the case came out Monday during the hearing, after which Judge Trudy Senda ruled enough evidence exists to charge Manuel for killing Gary Allen Allianic Jr.
Manuel will now head to 5th Circuit Court before Judge Randal Valenciano for his entry of plea at 8 a.m. Oct. 29.
Jasmine Duque — Manuel’s current girlfriend and Allianic’s ex-girlfriend — was among, three people who testified in District Court about what transpired the weekend of Sept. 25, preceding the death of Allianic.
Duque testified that while she was spending time with friends at Rob’s Good Times Grill that night, she called Allianic to meet her at the bottom of the stairs headed toward the bowling alley, so he could bring her a cigarette.
“I was supposed to meet Gary there, but he was taking a while, so there was another boy there so I asked that boy for a cigarette,” Duque said.
Duque said that once Allianic arrived, he turned violent on the boy, something she was used to during her two-year relationship with him. She said she asked the boy to leave before the confrontation could escalate.
“By the time that you texted Gary asking for the cigarettes, did Gary know that you were pregnant with the defendant’s child?” Manuel’s attorney Mark Zenger asked Duque.
“No, he did not yet,” she said.
“When did he learn that?” Zenger asked.
“While we were by the stairs, we were arguing and that came up,” she said.
Duque said Allianic had no real confirmation that she had been dating Manuel for two months until that moment during their intense argument, she said. So intense, she threw her phone and broke the screen, she said.
Duque testified that her argument with Allianic was quick and afterward she received two calls from Manuel and told him she was headed his way.
She said she assumed she’d meet him by the Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall parking lot because he was headed toward her from the baseball field.
She said she did not believe that Allianic was following her, and she was surprised when she saw him arrive at the Garden Island Barbecue parking lot. It was there where Allianic was found stabbed to death the following morning by a newspaper carrier.
In a previous interview with The Garden Island, Duque said Manuel and Allianic Jr. got into a fight that Friday night and that a knife came out. She said that at some point she was stabbed when she tried to get in between the two men to stop the fighting. Once she was stabbed, Manuel and Duque rushed to the hospital on foot, she said.
They did not call police.
The police report shows that Manuel admitted to stabbing Allianic multiple times after a fight as well as stabbing Duque after Allianic used “her in an effort to shield himself from being stabbed.”
Duque testified in court that she was not carrying any weapons on her during her encounter with Allianic and neither she nor Manuel stabbed him.
“Did at some point Gary get stabbed too?” Prosecuting Attorney Justin Kollar asked Duque.
“I suppose so. He must have,” Duque said in response.
“Who stabbed Gary?” Kollar said.
“I have no idea,” she said.
“Was it you?” he asked.
“No, sir,” she said.
Kollar asked Duque if she or Manuel assisted Allianic after the struggle. She testified that they did not and were too concerned with getting her to the hospital.
“I was thinking that my side really hurt and I was worried about the baby,” she said.
Two other witnesses provided testimony, Dr. Alvin Omori and Kauai Police Detective Anthony Morita.
Omori, who conducted the autopsy on Allianic, provided testimony that suggested Allianic might have survived if he had been rushed to the hospital immediately after being stabbed.
Hushed sniffles could be heard in the gallery during Omori’s testimony.
He noted Allianic died within minutes of receiving one fatal wound to his right upper chest, which entered the lung and caused bleeding into his chest cavity.
“The higher the blood pressure, the faster it will take to bleed and eventually to die,” Omori testified.
Omori said the toxicology reports for Allianic tested positive for high levels of methamphetamine and THC, the chemical found in marijuana.
Omori said he ruled the death a homicide and said he died as a result of his stab wounds, which measured more than seven centimeters in depth.
During cross-examination by the defense, Morita told the court that the Kauai Police Department was working to recover cellphone data from both Manuel and Duque’s cellphones and has contracted outside agencies to assist in the recovery.
Morita said KPD has begun extracting data from Allianic’s phone to continue their investigation.
