Suspect in 2015 murder case pleads guilty to robbery

A 28-year-old woman accused of killing her 65-year-old former live-in boyfriend who had kicked her out has made a deal with the prosecutor for her testimony against the people who allegedly assisted and participated in the killing.

Anjelita L. Rasa pleaded guilty in state court last week to robbery. She will get a 20-year prison term at sentencing in October instead of the possible life prison term without parole she was facing if she had been found guilty of murder and any one of the other original charges against her.

Rasa was indicted for murder, three related firearm offenses and credit card theft in connection with the June 2015 shooting death of William Aki. The indictment also specified that Rasa was eligible for an enhanced penalty of a life prison term without parole for the murder because she was facing more than one felony.

The normal penalty for second-degree murder is life in prison with the possibility of release on parole.

Even if Rasa had been found guilty of just the murder, she could have still faced the enhanced penalty because she has two prior felony convictions.

Rasa’s lawyer, Richard Hoke, and Deputy Prosecutor Scott Spallina declined to comment on Rasa’s plea agreement. They asked the court to file the document under seal, and acting Circuit Judge Paul B.K. Wong granted the request.

In pretrial hearings, however, Spallina said Rasa would admit to killing Aki.

Honolulu police found Aki’s body in his Whitmore Village home just past midnight on June 24, 2015, after firefighters extinguished his burned-out car near Makua Cave an hour earlier. Aki had been shot in the chest and back of the head.

Police arrested and charged Rasa and her boyfriend Shaun Branco-­Taguchi, 31, with Aki’s murder; Branco-Taguchi’s cousin Shane K. Rodrigues, 32, with arson and being an accomplice to murder; and Rodrigues’ girlfriend Jessica A. Samson, 29, with arson.

Branco-Taguchi has since married another woman.

Samson pleaded no contest Thursday. The trial for Branco-Taguchi and Rodrigues is scheduled to start Monday.

Police say in court documents that after Rasa sought but was unsuccessful in purchasing a firearm, Rodrigues provided the .22-caliber rifle that Rasa and Branco- Taguchi used to shoot Aki. After the shooting, Rasa and Branco-Taguchi took Aki’s car to Makua, where Rodrigues and Samson met them and set the car on fire, according to police.

All four left Makua in Rodrigues’ pickup truck. Police say Rasa had a burn on her right arm when they arrested her.

Rasa initially denied killing Aki and told police she was outside tying up his dog when she heard a gunshot from inside the house.

Samson told police that Rasa told her she shot Aki in the right shoulder and that Branco-Taguchi reloaded the rifle and shot Aki a second time. Samson also said Rasa told her she was “bummed” she didn’t have the “kill shot” because she didn’t know how to handle the rifle.

Police say the medical examiner attributed the cause of death to both gunshot wounds, and that the bullet that entered Aki’s chest near the shoulder perforated his right lung and spinal cord before exiting out of his back.

They also say in court documents that long strands of hair were found in both of Aki’s hands during the autopsy and in the pool of blood left by his body in the home.

Aki’s daughter told police that Rasa used her father, a retired ironworker, for a place to stay, a car to drive and money for drugs. She said her father kicked out Rasa because he found out Rasa was fooling around on him.