The older sister of a Hilo man accused of shooting two police officers early last year said that she told police that her brother was staying at her house.
The older sister of a Hilo man accused of shooting two police officers early last year said that she told police that her brother was staying at her house.
Maile Martin, formerly known as Maile Labrador, testified Thursday she “absolutely urged” her brother, Keaka Martin, to turn himself in. He’s charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder for the shootings of Hilo patrol officers Garrett Hatada and Joshua Gouveia on the night of Jan. 2, 2013, in the parking lot of the Pono Place, at the site of the former Green Onion cocktail lounge on Kilauea Avenue.
Hatada and Gouveia both suffered wounds to their lower extremities but have since returned to duty. Both have testified in the trial.
“I thought my brother had been involved in the shooting,” Maile Martin said, explaining why she had called police Detective Grant Todd on Jan. 3, 2013, left a message, then called again about 10 minutes later.
“I didn’t want to lose my nerve to do the right thing, what I thought was the right thing.”
Maile Martin said that she was contacted by Detective Brandon Konanui and provided him information that her brother was at her East Palai Street home. She drew police a diagram of the house and told them that she had a roommate and that her nephew was also staying there.
In response to a question by court-appointed defense attorney Steve Strauss, Maile Martin said Konanui told her that her cooperation would be “in Keaka’s best interest.”
“Detective Konanui was trying to reassure me that if I cooperated with them, that they would (attempt not to) hurt him,” she explained.
She said her brother, 32, denied shooting the two officers. Deputy Prosecutor Darien Nagata objected and moved to strike the statement, and Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura upheld her objection.
Maile Martin said she was at the Hilo police station when the police Special Response Team — the department’s SWAT unit — was dispatched, and she heard what followed on police radio.
“At some point did you receive information that a shot had been fired and Keaka had shot himself?” Strauss asked.
“… They said that a gunshot has been fired and as soon as I heard that over the dispatch radio, I looked at Detective Konanui in disgust and grief,” she responded. “And he said, ‘We’re not sure of what happened yet.’ And that there was an ambulance there.”
She said she learned her brother was still alive the following day. He’d been taken to Hilo Medical Center in critical condition with what police said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.
Police said that a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol was recovered in the home next to Keaka Martin. Maile Martin said she didn’t know her brother had a gun.
David Carroll, Keaka Martin’s friend who had been arrested and charged by police for disorderly conduct on the evening of Jan. 2 — and who alleges that officers beat him up during the arrest — testified Thursday that while he was in custody on Jan. 3, two police detectives he couldn’t identify by name interrogated him about Martin. He described both detectives as “heavier-set local men.”
“Were you threatened any time during the making of that statement?” Strauss asked.
“Well, they did tell me that if I did not testify or explain to them exactly what I saw, I would have charges pressed against me as an accomplice to the case,” Carroll replied.
“And did one or both of the detectives try to get you to state something that was not true?” Strauss inquired.
“… They were trying to get me to state that I personally seen Keaka shoot the officers,” Carroll said.
“And that’s something that you did not see?”
“I did not.”
Carroll, who said he suffered “a busted lip (and) a nice scrape on my face and on my left cheekbone” during the arrest, was convicted of the disorderly conduct charge.
“I was told the best defense for me was to take a no contest plea,” he said. He said that he was distraught because he believed police had shot and killed Keaka Martin, and admitted during questioning by Nagata that he was agitated when the arrest occurred.
Carroll, who was shown in a surveillance video buying milk at the Kilauea Shell Food Mart at the time the shooting occurred, wasn’t charged as an accomplice.
If convicted of first-degree attempted murder, Keaka Martin faces a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaii tribune-herald.com.