Multiple witnesses saw accused killer Ilai F. Luamanu chase fatal stabbing victim Iosua Fiso outside the Makiki apartment building where Luamanu had been living as Fiso taunted him. Surveillance cameras at the apartment building and at three nearby businesses recorded the
chase.
None of the witnesses, however, reported seeing who stabbed Fiso on Makiki Street on Aug. 7, 2016, and none of the cameras recorded the stabbing.
Luamanu, 30, is on trial in state court for murder.
Fiso, 26, died from a stab wound to the chest below the left breast that punctured his heart. Honolulu Medical Examiner Masahiko Kobayashi testified that Fiso also had scrapes on his arms, legs and torso and three bruises on the back of his head.
None of the witnesses who were in the Makiki Street apartment building, in its garage, on the sidewalk outside the building, across the street and in a car traveling on Makiki Street told Honolulu police they saw Luamanu make contact with Fiso. They did say, however, that they saw Luamanu throw something at Fiso just before seeing Fiso staggering and bleeding.
Deputy Prosecutor Robert Brown told the jurors in opening statements Tuesday that when Luamanu chased Fiso south on Makiki Street toward Beretania Street, the two men entered a spot about 10 feet long that was out of view of the surveillance cameras at Makiki Liquor store, Makiki Auto Repair and the car wash at Don’s Makiki Service.
Brown told the jurors that when the two men entered the dead spot, Fiso was not injured. He said seconds later Luamanu came into camera view and walked away followed by Fiso, who was injured and bleeding.
Luamanu’s lawyer Carmel Lui-Kwan told the jury the video proves Luamanu “could not have been the one who stabbed Iosua Fiso.” She said if it was Luamanu, then it wouldn’t have made sense for Fiso, after he had been stabbed, to head back toward the apartment building, as the video shows, where his confrontation with Luamanu began.
Lui-Kwan told the jurors that they will hear Luamanu tell police in a recorded interview that he did not stab Fiso and that he doesn’t know what happened to him.
