A jury Monday convicted a 34-year-old man of kidnapping his ex-girlfriend, eight months after he was acquitted of murdering her in a separate incident.
The jury had sat through nearly the entire kidnapping trial without being told why ex-girlfriend Royal Kaukani was unavailable to testify against defendant Toi Nofoa. But at closing arguments Monday jurors were told Kaukani is dead, and hours later returned the verdict convicting Nofoa.
At the start of the trial, Circuit Judge Randal Lee had ruled that telling jurors that Kaukani is dead would deny Nofoa a fair trial.
Lee told the jurors not to speculate as to why they were going to hear recordings of Kaukani’s 911 call and of her preliminary hearing testimony from 2008 rather than her live testimony. Lee reminded the jurors not to speculate on Kaukani’s unavailability when, under questioning from Deputy Prosecutor Maurice Arrisgado, Nofoa responded, "Why don’t you ask Royal?"
However, Arrisgado on Monday was allowed to tell the jurors of Kaukani’s death after Nofoa’s lawyer, Craig Nagamine, said in his closing argument that Nofoa was available to answer questions but Kaukani was not.
Nagamine declined comment after the verdict.
"Who in their wildest dream would have thought that we would be able to tell the jury the truth, that Royal was dead, that’s why she wasn’t here to testify?" Arrisgado said.
Nofoa faces a mandatory 20-year prison term when he is sentenced in October.
In addition to the kidnapping verdict, the jury found Nofoa guilty of misdemeanor terroristic threatening.
The prosecution said Nofoa abducted Kaukani, 25, at her workplace in Ko Olina on Sept. 11, 2008, and forced her into a sport utility vehicle at gunpoint. Two Haleiwa gas station employees testified they intervened to free Kaukani when Nofoa stopped the SUV at their gas station.
On March 27, 2009, Kaukani was fatally shot in the back of neck while she sat behind the wheel of her SUV in a Ewa by Gentry neighborhood. She also was shot in the face.
Nofoa was charged with first-degree murder because Kaukani was scheduled to testify against him in the kidnapping case. He was acquitted of murder on Nov. 23, 2011.
