Opinion ID: 4443342
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Laraway’s Testimony

Text: Through a Japanese interpreter, Laraway testified as follows. 12  FOR PUBLICATION IN WEST’S HAWAI̒I REPORTS AND PACIFIC REPORTER  Laraway lived in the 2904 Date Street Apartments on January 24, 2015. At around 12:30 p.m. that day, she left her apartment to walk to her car, which was parked on Date Street across from the apartment building. As she and her son walked on the sidewalk alongside the apartment building before crossing Date Street, Laraway saw a man crouched beneath the window of a corner, ground-floor unit of the apartment building. Laraway was about four meters away from the man when she also noticed that the window’s screen was rolled up. Laraway could only see the side of the man’s face as she walked by, but she observed the man had short, curly hair and a “scruffy face.” She also noted he was “not black, but he seemed to be suntanned, Caucasian with light brown . . . skin.” She did not recognize him. She took note of the man because “[i]t was quite unusual” for someone to be crouched there. The man was wearing a hat covering a portion of his face, but at the hearing she could not remember whether the hat cast a shadow over his face. When Laraway got into her car, which was parked facing towards the apartment, she looked up and saw the man’s upper body was through the window and into the apartment. She immediately called 911.5 5 The recording of Laraway’s 911 call was not offered as evidence at the motion to suppress hearing. 13  FOR PUBLICATION IN WEST’S HAWAI̒I REPORTS AND PACIFIC REPORTER  On the day of the incident, Laraway spoke and wrote in English when interacting with HPD. Laraway had given the following description of the man to the 911 dispatcher: “a skinny black guy,” who was also “muscular” and “stout,” and who was wearing a white or light blue t-shirt. At the hearing, Laraway thought the shirt the man was wearing was long-sleeved. She also clarified that she did not describe the man’s hair to the 911 dispatcher or tell the 911 dispatcher that the man’s face was “scratchy or unshaved.” After calling 911, Laraway drove to her son’s soccer game. While at the park, at around 2:00 p.m., Laraway received a call from an officer, but did not further describe the man she saw at the window at that time. Laraway returned home at around 3:00 p.m. and saw four police cars outside the apartment building. The police told Laraway they had “captured the guy in the laundromat.” She thought that meant they had caught the man she had seen earlier at the window. Laraway agreed to participate in a field show-up outside the apartment building sometime between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. The officers did not provide her with any forms or instructions before conducting the show-up. The officers asked Laraway to look at Kaneaiakala, who was standing on the sidewalk, shirtless, handcuffed, and surrounded by police officers. It was a “clear day” and she stood ten to 14  FOR PUBLICATION IN WEST’S HAWAI̒I REPORTS AND PACIFIC REPORTER  fifteen feet away from him. On June 24, 2015, Laraway told the police she was “[p]retty sure” Kaneaiakala was the same man she had seen earlier. She “got the same impression” from Kaneaiakala as she did from the man at the window, because of the “structure and the face and the hair color . . . the image itself, and also [the] complexion of his skin.” Laraway admitted she did not see anything distinct about the eyes or nose of the man at the window, and if shown someone with similar body shape and complexion, it might have been hard for her to identify the correct person. She further testified, however, that she was sure that Kaneaiakala was the man she saw at the window. After she identified Kaneaiakala, Laraway completed a written statement on which she wrote, “I almost positive the guy was him.” After identifying Kaneaiakala, she also filled out a suspect description form, checking various boxes describing the suspect as a Caucasian male, 5’6” to 5’8” feet tall with a medium build, dark brown hair, brown facial hair, and wearing a long-sleeved white polo shirt and long blue pants. She wrote in the word “scruffy” to describe the man at the window’s facial hair. Laraway explained that on June 24, 2015, she had checked the box indicating the man at the window was wearing pants, but she now recalled the man at the window was wearing shorts. She 15  FOR PUBLICATION IN WEST’S HAWAI̒I REPORTS AND PACIFIC REPORTER  also explained she checked the box for long-sleeved shirt, but testified that the man might have been wearing a short-sleeved shirt. She acknowledged she checked the box indicating the man at the window’s height based on later seeing Kaneaiakala at the show-up. On January 24, 2015, Laraway had spoken English with the officers and completed all forms in English. At some point that day, she told the police that she has “bad eyesight” and that she was not wearing her glasses when she saw the man at the window. Laraway testified she was born and raised in Japan and grew up interacting mostly with Japanese people. At her workplace, she predominately interacts with ethnically Japanese people. During her past decade in Hawaiʻi, however, she has seen and interacted with diverse people, and she is married to a Caucasian man. At the hearing, Laraway also identified Kaneaiakala, who was present in the courtroom, as the man she had seen at the window.