The trial of amateur kickboxer Corbit Ahn, charged in the murder of an 18-year-old woman whose nude body was found in Kalihi, opened Thursday in Circuit Court.
Deputy Prosecutor Dean Young said Ahn manhandled and beat Iris Rodrigues-Kaikana, ripped off her clothes, sexually assaulted her and then squeezed the life out of her.
But Ahn’s lawyer, Donald Wilkerson, suggested that police may have missed critical evidence in the August 2009 killing of Rodrigues-Kaikana. However, Wilkerson didn’t say what police may have missed or provide an alternative theory for Rodrigues-Kaikana’s death.
An area resident found the woman’s nude body in an alley between the Kamehameha Homes public housing complex in Kalihi and the adjacent neighborhood on Aug. 24, 2009.
Young showed the jury a picture of Rodrigues-Kaikana’s nude body laying face-down in the alley and a picture of her face. He said there were 47 bruises, cuts or abrasions on the body, including a cut to the lower lip that went all the way through to the inside of the mouth and a chipped tooth. Young said the body also had neck injuries and that Rodrigues-Kaikana had been strangled.
Young said Honolulu police recovered DNA matching Ahn’s on the front of Rodrigues-Kaikana’s neck, left breast, left wrist and on her sports bra, which had been ripped in two.
“No other person’s DNA was found on Iris’s body but hers and the defendant,” he said.
Wilkerson said police did not test the DNA of blood found on Rodrigues-Kaikana’s groin area. Nor did police test for blood in the area where the body was found or in the public housing unit where Rodrigues-Kaikana and Ahn were last seen the night before.
He said Rodrigues-Kaikana’s body had a bite mark on the neck that was not caused by Ahn, and there was a clump of hair found in the area of the housing unit where Rodrigues-Kaikana and Ahn were hanging out that police did not test.
Edmund Waialae Sr. testified Rodrigues-Kaikana was a friend to his children and regularly stayed overnight in his three-bedroom, two-story public housing unit.
Young said Ahn also went to the home because Waialae’s daughter is the mother of Ahn’s nephew.
One of Waialae’s sons, Steven Navarro, testified he heard Rodrigues-Kaikana yell “get off me” from where she and Ahn were sitting on the back lanai the night before Rodrigues-Kaikana’s body was found. Navarro said he saw Ahn follow Rodrigues-Kaikana into the kitchen and then follow her back to the lanai.
Young said another of Waialae’s sons saw Ahn pushing Rodrigues-Kaikana out of the unit and onto the lanai.
Wilkerson said Ahn was being playful when he followed Rodrigues-Kaikana into the unit and pushed her onto the lanai.
