Witnesses will testify defendant not at murder scene, lawyer says
By Nelson Daranciang
Feb. 17, 2012
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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM Defendant Kilani Derego, right, conferred with his attorney, Jeffrey Hawk, in the courtroom as his trial in the beating death of cabdriver Ty Tang continued Thursday.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM Pathologist Kanthi De Alwis testified Thursday about the beating death of cabdriver Ty Tang.
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The attorney for the second man to go on trial for the murder of a taxi driver in Waipahu in 2010 said Thursday that his client was not in the parking lot where the fatal beating took place.
Kilani Derego did not fatally beat Charley’s Taxi driver Ty Tang in the parking lot of Times Super Market’s Waipahu store because Derego wasn’t there, lawyer Jeffrey Hawk said in opening statements at the 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, a Cambodian immigrant, died of head injuries hours after his body was found in the parking lot next to his cab on May 1, 2010 — his 41st birthday.
Tang had picked up two men at about 1:15 a.m. in Waikiki and drove them to the Times store in Waipahu. His murder raised concerns among Honolulu cabdrivers about their safety.
Derego’s childhood friend Michael Robles, 20, is serving a 20-year prison term for manslaughter for his role in the beating.
At his trial last May, Robles said he and Derego got into Tang’s cab in Waikiki and planned to skip out on paying the fare when they arrived in Waipahu.
Prosecutor Scott Bell said a city bus driver saw the two teenagers get into a cab in Waikiki after the driver told Derego that his bus could not take them to Waipahu.
Derego and Robles were residents of a Hale Kipa therapeutic group home in Manoa for at-risk youth at the time.
Robles testified in his own trial that when the cab stopped, he ran away. When he looked back, he said, he saw Derego punching Tang while Tang was on the ground. He said he intervened to stop Derego from continuing to beat Tang and to get Tang to let go of Derego’s legs.
Robles was scheduled to testify in Derego’s trial this afternoon.
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GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM