Closing arguments were made Thursday in a Hilo Circuit Court murder trial, with the prosecutor telling the jury the defendant killed the victim over a longstanding dispute and the defense attorney claiming his client was framed by prosecution witnesses who themselves had something to hide.
The jury will begin deliberations Tuesday in the trial of 67-year-old Wayne Joseph Teves, charged with attempted second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a separate felony for the fatal shooting of 49-year-old Thaine Ulysses Lucifer Price on March 2, 2016.
Teves, who was Price’s neighbor, told police the following evening he found Price’s partially submerged body in a river running behind Teves’ home in Waipio Valley.
Deputy Prosecutor Joseph Lee told jurors Teves was upset at Price because the latter had dammed the river so he could cross it in his truck, causing Teves’ home to flood. Lee added Teves believed Price to have intentionally caused stress to Teves’ 35-year-old daughter, Jasmin, hastening her demise of lupus on Nov. 28, 2015. He said Teves reported his complaints about Price to police and the Department of Land and Natural Resources, but to no avail.
“Police weren’t helping him. DLNR was not helping him. Mr. Price smiled when Mr. Teves confronted him about Jasmine’s death,” Lee said. “Mr. Teves had it in his mind that Mr. Price was responsible for the death of Jasmin. Revenge. He’d had enough. No one wanted to help him. No one was going to do anything for him. He was going to take matters into his own hands. And he did.”
Lee pointed to testimony by Starsky Pira and Keo Joaquin, who told the jury Teves confessed to the shooting of Price — whom Lee conceded was not a well-liked individual — during a Jeep ride to go fishing shortly after the slaying occurred. The prosecutor also pointed to Joaquin’s father, Lance Joaquin, who said Teves approached him at the Araki Hotel in the valley to rent a room.
“Now, Mr. Teves had a residence. Why is he looking to stay at the Araki Hotel?” Lee said. “Mr. Teves was asked by Lance Joaquin, why. And what was he told? Lance Joaquin testified that he was told by Mr. Teves that he needs an alibi, that he was somewhere else at the time that Thaine Price was shot. How does Mr. Teves know that Thaine Price has been shot? You know, this was the first night. He knows because he shot him.”
Lee also told jurors Teves “was proud” of having shot Price.
Brian De Lima, Teves’ court-appointed defense counsel, countered that there was no credible evidence to convict his client. As he made points he said cast reasonable doubt upon the state’s case, De Lima poked holes in a white, star-shaped mylar balloon with the words “Class of 2018” in silver letters with black bordering — a piece of courtroom theater he has employed on numerous occasions.
De Lima said police did a sloppy investigation, with no firearm found, no testing of his client for gunpowder residue, a search of of Teves’ property not being conducted on a grid pattern, and no finding of shell casings or blood spatter. De Lima also called Pira and the Joaquins “the gang of three” and said they “concocted” their story to frame Teves. He posited that Pira and Keo Joaquin knew more about the murder than what they told police, and that Lance Joaquin lied to protect his son.
“No one’s ever seen (Teves) with a gun,” De Lima said. “Their theory is … he was so obsessed with killing Thaine Price, he went to find a gun. So the first chance he would see Thaine Price he would shoot him, even if he was shooting him in the back of his own yard. He was so motivated that he was going to get a gun and get him.
“And then, after he shoots him, in the back of his yard, what he’s gonna do is … go to the first guy and say, ‘Eh, you can be my alibi? I like you be my alibi. Oh, you can’t be my alibi?’ Let me go confess to this next guy. ‘Oh, hi. Can you take me to my house? I’ll give you 20 dollars. Oh, and by the way, I just shot somebody at my house.’ And the next morning, run to the hotel. ‘You can make me smoke meat? Oh, I wen’ kill Thaine Price.
“Without any corroboration, they want you to believe that story — a person so motivated by revenge he’s gonna find a gun to do such a crime, is going to pick a place where that person is not going to be in their back yard. What is more logical, what this case cries out, is that Wayne Teves has been framed.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.