A man charged with murder in connection with a brutal beating in Kalihi three years ago wasn’t even there, the defendant’s lawyer said Tuesday in opening statements of the murder trial in state court.

Lawyer Richard Hoke Jr. said defendant Vito John Talo doesn’t remember where he was on Jan. 13, 2009, but that he knows he wasn’t at the beating.

But city Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bell said Talo, 28, stomped on Damaso Domingo’s head at least 10 times on Jan. 13, 2009, while the 54-year-old Domingo was on the ground on School Street near the Lana­kila Avenue intersection.

"The assailant’s foot came down over and over and over again to his face," Bell said.

He said the stomps and kicks fractured Domingo’s skull and caused his brain to shift within the skull.

Domingo’s face was so badly broken and bloodied that when he was taken to the Queen’s Medical Center as an unidentified victim, his daughter, who was the intensive care doctor on duty, did not immediately recognize the patient as her father.

Domingo died two days later.

Bell said another man, Aitasi B. Lega­ta­sia, first knocked Domingo to the ground with a punch. Lega­ta­sia, 22, is expected to testify that Talo then stomped on Domingo.

Legatasia pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault in July 2010 and was granted a one-year deferral of his plea. Since the one-year deferral period is over, the charge is no longer part of his criminal rec­ord.

A woman who was with Domingo gave Hono­lulu police descriptions of two men who attacked him, which police used to produce sketches that they circulated in the area. It wasn’t until September 2009 that police received information pointing to Lega­ta­sia and Talo.

Hoke said the police sketch said to be of Talo is not Talo, and said it could be of a friend of Lega­ta­sia’s. He said the friend gave police an alibi, which he later retracted.

Bell said the assault took place after Talo offered to sell the woman crystal meth­am­pheta­mine, and that Talo walked away with her money but without handing over the drugs. That led to a confrontation between Talo and the woman, who was with Domingo, Bell said. Hoke said a dispute over the woman’s money led to the confrontation, but did not say whether it was over a drug deal.