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A 26-year-old man demonstrated in Circuit Court on Thursday how he fatally stabbed a 59-year-old man with two knives in a one-two combination after the man tried to hit him with a piece of wood.
Herwin Magbulos is on trial for the May 5, 2013 murder of Darryl Wong in a homeless encampment under the H-1 freeway viaduct near Honolulu Airport.
Magbulos said that he was sitting on a cooler when Wong swung a piece of wood at him, striking him on the upper left arm.
Magbulos said he ended up on the floor where Wong was choking him. When Wong went to pick up the piece of wood again, Magbulos picked up a large knife he found on the ground and took out a smaller one he was carrying.
He said he had the smaller knife in his left hand and the larger one in his right and raised them to scare Wong, but Wong came at him again with the wood.
“I had to defend myself,” Magbulos said through an interpreter. He showed how he stabbed Wong in the stomach and thrust the larger knife into Wong’s back in a continuous motion.
Then he said he ran to the door.
Defense lawyer Edward Aquino told the jurors in opening statements that Magbulos gave Wong money to buy drugs for Magbulos. He said later, when Magbulos asked Wong for the drugs, Wong responded by swinging a piece of wood at Magbulos’ head, choking him and attempting to hit him a second time with the piece of wood.
Prosecutor Kaina Awong told the jurors that Magbulos went to the homeless encampment to kill Wong and had told Wong’s neighbor before the stabbing that he had a problem with someone and was going to kill that person.
Awong said Magbulos stabbed Wong in the abdomen with the smaller knife and twisted the blade, then stabbed Wong in the back with the larger knife, which had a 10-inch blade. He said Wong also had defensive wounds including a cut on an elbow.
When the neighbor asked Magbulos what he had done, Awong said Magbulos responded with an expletive and said, “let him die.”
