Kilani Derego did not fatally beat taxicab driver Charlys Ty Tang in the parking lot of Times Super Market’s Waipahu store because he wasn’t there, defense lawyer Jeffrey Hawk said today in opening statements of Derego’s murder trial.

“He was in Wahiawa with his girlfriend at a party on Schofield Barracks,” Hawk said.

He said Derego’s girlfriend and the residents of the military housing unit where they partied will testify that Derego and his girlfriend slept in the unit and didn’t leave until the next morning.

Derego, 19, is on trial in state court for second-degree murder for Tang’s death.

Tang died from head injuries hours after a bystander found his body in the parking lot next to his taxicab on May 1, 2010, his 41st birthday.