LIHU‘E — More than a dozen friends and family members of Vicente Hilario attended the preliminary hearing in his first-degree murder case, Tuesday, in district court. While they nearly filled the right side of the courtroom, a lone man was
LIHU‘E — More than a dozen friends and family members of Vicente Hilario attended the preliminary hearing in his first-degree murder case, Tuesday, in district court. While they nearly filled the right side of the courtroom, a lone man was sitting on the opposite side carrying the pain of losing his youngest son, 34-year-old Aureo Moore of Kapa‘a.
Up until three years ago, Aureo Moore “was a totally normal guy,” Robert Moore said. He was a surfer and a construction worker, his father added.
But one day, while working on the South Shore for a construction company, he fell off a ladder from the second floor, Robert Moore said.
“From that day on he never worked again,” he said.
After the accident, Aureo Moore started suffering severe back pain. His father said his son went to O‘ahu several times to see a specialist.
Doctors told Aureo Moore that he needed surgery on his back. But he kept putting it off, Robert Moore said, adding that it was not a guaranteed thing that surgery would end his back problems.
“They just started giving him pain medicine, the oxycodone,” Robert Moore said. “Then he got totally addicted to it.”
Aureo Moore had been taking oxycodone for almost three years, occasionally switching it with morphine, his father said.
Aureo Moore got so addicted to oxycodone that he started snorting it to get high and at the end he would inject it, Robert Moore said.
“Everybody knew how addicted Aureo was, and the doctor just kept giving it to him,” Robert Moore said.
Aureo Moore was living on disability and welfare, but the money was hardly enough to get by, according to his father.
Robert Moore said his son would occasionally sell a few pills here and there to make some extra money.
But police eventually busted Aureo Moore for selling the pills. His jury trial was scheduled for Feb. 28.
The only other time Aureo Moore had been arrested was in 1996. He faced drunken driving charges, which were dismissed after two years, his father said.
Aureo Moore was living in Kapa‘a with a disabled, terminally ill elderly man whom he was caring for, according to his father.
‘They were going
to get him’
Last August, after picking up his oxycodone and morphine prescriptions at Longs Drugs in Kapa‘a, Aureo Moore was robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot facing Safeway, his father said. He was carrying more than 150 pills of oxycodone and at least 50 pills of morphine, he added.
Aureo Moore had also just cashed a reimbursement check from the insurance company, valued at almost $700, which explains why he was carrying $900 in his pocket, according to his father.
Robert Moore said Kyle Akau, 24, showed Aureo Moore a handgun, pointed it up in the air and fired it once. Scared, Aureo Moore handed all he had to Akau, who then took off in a car with Vicente Hilario, 24, and Akoni Davis, 21, according to his father.
Akau, Hilario and Davis were all arrested and charged with robbery. The charges against Hilario and Davis were later dismissed without prejudice, meaning they could be brought up again.
Robert Moore said the prosecution told him that the judge dismissed the charges against Hilario and Davis because there was not enough evidence that they participated in the robbery.
But Akau’s charges stood. He also faced other charges for illegal drugs and firearms. His case was bounded over to circuit court. The police arrest log shows Akau was arrested Dec. 21 for criminal contempt of court and revocation of modified probation.
“Aureo was really scared because before he testified the first time, they were already threatening him. They said they were going to get him,” Robert Moore said. “Aureo told me and he told his roommate. The police know all this.”
Aureo Moore was supposed to testify again later last month, and had even considered not showing up in court because he was scared for his life, his father said.
Set up?
Robert Moore said his son did not have a car. He mostly got around town on a bicycle. When he needed a ride somewhere he would ask his friends or his older brother.
On Dec. 14, Aureo Moore had ran out of his medicine, so he asked his doctor for more pills. He was told to come back on Dec. 22, according to his father.
On the morning of Dec. 17, Aureo Moore asked for some money from his brother, who took him to the bank and handed him $20. Aureo Moore also asked for a ride to the North Shore, and said he would meet his brother by the Whaler’s General Store in Anahola in about 40 minutes.
In the meantime, Angie Nora Crawford, also known as Pua Crawford, offered to give Moore a ride to Anahola so he could buy some oxycodone, according to Robert Moore. She was supposed to bring Aureo Moore to Whaler’s afterward so his brother could take him north, Robert Moore said.
Attempts to reach Crawford for comment were unsuccessful by press time.
Crawford took Moore to Anahola and dropped him off in the middle of Mana‘i Road by Anahola Beach Park, Robert Moore said. She then took off to buy the pills, saying she would come back soon, according to Robert Moore.
Hilario and Kawaihalau-Manaku were hiding in the bushes nearby, Robert Moore said.
Soon after being dropped off, Aureo Moore was shot in the back three times, and then twice in the back of his head as he fell down, Robert Moore said.
Kawaihalau-Manaku and Hilario were initially charged with second-degree murder. Kawaihalau-Manaku was later released pending investigation, and is now a key witness. Hilario had a first-degree murder charge added to his previous charge.
County Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho said she added the first-degree murder charge, which leaves no possibility of parole, because the crime involved the killing of a witness to a crime in which the suspect is a defendant.
Robert Moore said the prosecution told him if the murder charge against Kawaihalau-Manaku stood, there would be two separate trials. It would be more difficult to reach a conviction without testimony from a key witness, in this case, Kawaihalau-Manaku, Robert Moore said.
Crawford returned to pick up Aureo Moore, but the police were all over the place. Instead, she met with Aureo Moore’s brother in Anahola and told him that she could not pick up Aureo Moore, Robert Moore said, adding that his eldest son noted that Crawford was acting strange.
Later that day Crawford made a phone call to Aureo Moore’s brother and told him Hilario carried a gun with him all the time, according to Robert Moore.
Aureo Moore’s father said the police took the cell phones from his older son and from Crawford, and are analyzing the phone calls to determine what role Crawford may have played in the crime.
Robert Moore said he believes Crawford did not know that Moore would be killed when she dropped him off.
Despite losing his younger son — who three years ago had no drug addictions, worked hard and led a normal life — Robert Moore said he hopes others will realize the toll that prescription drugs can take on people.
Robert Moore said his son’s doctor really tried to wean Aureo Moore off the prescription drugs, but Aureo Moore’s pain was such that he had a hard time getting by without them.
A Kaua‘i physician said Tuesday that the drug problem on Kaua‘i is real and widespread.
“Can I say there’s a drug problem on this island? Yes. There’s no doctor here that wouldn’t,” said the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We’re all doing everything we can to rein it in.”
Robert Moore said it’s been hard for him to cope with his loss, but he’s trying to stay positive.
“I feel there’s life, and life is eternal. If life is eternal, Aureo is in some place better anyway,” Robert Moore said, tears rolling down his cheeks.
• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or lazambuja@kauaipubco.com.
