Nainoa Damon was convicted Tuesday of second-degree murder in the shooting death of 18-year-old Haaheo Kolona during a 2022 robbery at a scenic lookout on Tantalus.
A Circuit Court jury also found the 22-year-old son of a police sergeant guilty as charged of first-degree robbery, first-degree terroristic threatening and three firearm charges in the March 18, 2022, incident.
Damon, who was 19 at the time of the crimes, faces life imprisonment with the possibility of parole for the murder when he is sentenced Aug. 22 by Judge Shanlyn Park.
The jury of eight women and four men reached a unanimous verdict midafternoon Tuesday after deliberating for about a day and a half.
Deputy Prosecutor Anna Ishikawa told jurors during the trial, which began May 2, that a large group of friends had met the night of March 17, 2022, first in Waikiki at the zoo parking lot. They then brought their social gathering up to a lookout on Round Top Drive.
It was during the early morning hours that Damon interrupted that gathering. Damon, wearing a ski mask, exited a white 1998 Toyota Camry, pointed a gun at the group and demanded they empty the contents of their pockets. He went up to Edward Aiden Curti, held him in a chokehold and tugged on his gold chain.
Curti knew Damon for four or five years, Ishikawa said, and instantly recognized him.
Everyone was afraid and didn’t make a move, except for Kolona, who pulled a handgun from his waistband and tried to stop the robbery.
Damon then pulled Kolona close and shot into his abdomen. Kolona’s friends brought him to a hospital, where he died.
Damon knew many of the group at the gathering.
Uilani Yen, who was a friend of Damon’s for years and remained one until the shooting, testified that Damon planned to rob Curti of his gold chain.
Some of the witnesses had been drinking and smoked marijuana, but they testified they were able to identify Damon by his height, his build, the tattoo on his right hand, his eyes, his gait, his voice and how he spoke. Some knew him for years.
Damon’s attorney, Nelson Goo, tried to discredit the witnesses. He told jurors that witnesses’ testimonies were conflicting, with the color of his ski mask ranging from black to white to red, that they were intoxicated, and that it was pitch black.
Goo also did not convince jurors that Damon was not present when the shooting occurred based on his deductions from the state’s FBI expert, who used pings from Damon’s cellphone to determine his location and times, and the 911 call.
Goo said Damon had gone out for an event at a Chinatown venue with a group of friends. After the event, Damon left Chinatown at 1:37 a.m., according to information from the FBI agent.
Goo deduced that the offense occurred at 1:42 to 1:43 a.m.
But Ishikawa said the shooting occurred at 1:50 to 1:53 a.m. because of the time of the 911 call.
Goo also tried to implicate another man in the shooting, saying he had a “beef” with Curti and had argued with him on FaceTime that night, and had a connection to the getaway car.
But that man was never at the scene and is much shorter than Damon, who is roughly 6 feet tall.
Damon’s mother, Sgt. Jennifer Bugarin, took the stand, testifying she urged him to turn himself in to police for his own safety.
The media was not informed by the court Tuesday that a verdict had been reached, as has been past practice, so the Honolulu Star-Advertiser was unable to speak with family and friends who sat on both sides of the gallery, and unable to report Damon’s reaction when the verdict was read.
On Monday, however, Kolona’s family members and friends were seen filling one side of the gallery.
And Damon periodically glanced behind him at his relatives and friends on the other side of the gallery. Damon embraced some of them, including an older woman in a wheelchair.
He remains in custody at the Oahu Community Correctional Center, unable to post $1 million bail.
Damon lived with his grandmother in Wahiawa before the crimes occurred.
