The mother of a slain pregnant Maui woman whose ex-boyfriend was found guilty of murder Wednesday said she was thankful after the verdict, but plans to keep her daughter’s memory alive by fighting for stiffer penalties and changes in state laws to make it easier to prosecute and get convictions in such cases.
“While we’re grateful, honestly there’s a lot more we could have had if we’d been in a different state. If that bothers anyone as much as it bothers us, we should all be getting angry and asking the right people — the lawmakers — why we are in this particular situation,” Kimberlyn Scott, mother of Carly “Charli” Scott, said outside the courtroom.
The jury in the high-profile Maui murder returned unanimous guilty verdicts for second-degree murder and second-degree arson against Steven Capobianco for killing Charli Scott and setting her vehicle on fire in February 2014. Scott was 27 years old and five months pregnant at the time with an unborn child fathered by Capobianco.
The trial began more than six months ago with the state introducing 71 witnesses and entering hundreds of items into evidence.
“Our family would like to thank everyone who searched and spoke the truth. … We’d not be here now in this moment if it hadn’t been for everybody who worked as hard as you did for three long years,” Kimberlyn Scott said. “In a state where we have no premeditation, no first-degree murder applicable to someone like Charli, no feticide, no felony abuse of a corpse. … We’re lucky because we have this murder conviction.”
Maui Chief Judge
Joseph Cardoza will reconvene court today, when jurors will hear arguments on whether the circumstances in the case warrant enhanced sentencing and if the state proved the murder was “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, manifesting in exceptional depravity.”
Jurors had been deliberating since Dec. 1 following the conclusion of closing arguments from the state and defense, as well as a rebuttal argument from the prosecution.
“This kinda feels like a validation, but it’s nowhere near the end of the road for Charli at all, and we’ve become indebted to our community for everything that they’ve done … that has left us with this obligation to do something to see things change,” Kimberlyn Scott said. “I don’t want another situation like this to happen and another mother, another sister, to walk in our shoes. The laws need to be stronger and citizens need to be protected.”
The court received communication on the ninth day of deliberations indicating that the jury was “divided.” In a subsequent communication, the jury decided to deliberate further to “feel more confident in their own personal vote decision.”
“I’d hate to see anyone else walk in our shoes to find out what we found out,” Scott said. “But we are not done with this, we are hoping the community will continue to rally around us as we fight for legislation and laws that make justice actually feel like justice.”
