Inmate admits killing cellmate, though he was angry at another

Joseph Tui Jr. told police he killed his 76-year-old cellmate at Oahu Community Correctional Center because he was angry at another inmate, said Oksana Vincent, deputy city prosecutor.

Tui, 32, is awaiting trial in state court for murder in the March 9 beating death of Cyrl Chung. He is charged with first-degree murder because he was incarcerated at the time of the fatal beating. The charge carries a mandatory life prison term without the possibility for parole, the state’s harshest penalty.

When an Oahu grand jury returned the murder indictment against Tui on March 14, Vincent told state Circuit Judge Richard Perkins that Tui had confessed to the killing even though he claimed to have no beef with Chung. The Star-Advertiser requested a tape of the hearing and received a copy Wednesday.

"He was upset with another inmate who was in a separate cell. He was supposed to fight that inmate later on in the day," she said.

Vincent, who works in the city prosecutor’s elder abuse unit, said Tui was angry because the inmate in the other cell had been making racial remarks.

"That made the defendant very upset. He was getting madder and madder, and when he could not contain his anger anymore, he took it out on his 76-year-old cellmate," she said.

State Department of Public Safety Director Ted Sakai has said Tui and Chung were in the facility’s holding unit for inmates who misbehave. Tui was there for threatening staff, Chung for cigarette possession.

He said they were supposed to be in separate cells but were placed together because of overcrowding.

Prison officials called for a city ambulance after discovering Chung nude and unresponsive on the floor of the cell. Chung was also bleeding from the back of his head.

According to a Hono­lulu Police Department affidavit, police learned that after prison officials discovered Chung on the floor of the cell, Tui complained of pain in his right wrist and left leg from the assault. Tui told the city paramedic who was dispatched to look at his injuries that he punched and kicked his victim in the head, police said.

OCCC is for defendants awaiting trial.

Tui has been in OCCC since January on a harassment charge. Chung had been in custody since February 2011 for robbery.