Opinion ID: 4542551
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Complaining Witness

Text: The complaining witness (CW), a Japanese national, testified through a Japanese-English interpreter as follows. In the fall of 2013, she was living in Hawaiʻi to study English. During this time, she met and began a romantic relationship with David Miller, a Caucasian janitor at the Shinnyo-en Temple that she attended. Because she did not have a permanent residence, she moved in with Miller for about a month in August 2013, and Miller arranged for her to stay with his exgirlfriend Yoko Kato, a Japanese national, from October 12 through 13, 2013. While staying with Kato, Kato spoke to the CW about her past relationship with Miller. After staying at Kato’s house, the CW had no contact or very limited contact with Miller and broke up with him. (. . . continued) (1) Except as provided in section 707-701, a person commits the offense of murder in the second degree if the person intentionally or knowingly causes the death of another person. 2 The Honorable Karen S.S. Ahn presided over the proceedings in this case. 3 FOR PUBLICATION IN WEST’S HAWAI‘I REPORTS AND PACIFIC REPORTER While in Hawaiʻi, the CW used the LINE application (LINE app), an internet application frequently used by Japanese nationals, to communicate with friends and organize outings. To contact someone on the LINE app, users either put their LINE identifications (LINE ID) directly into another user’s LINE app or users must know the LINE ID of the other user they want to contact. Although the CW never gave Kato her LINE ID, Kato contacted her on the LINE app to request that she return a key that belonged to Miller’s bicycle. Shortly after moving out of Kato’s apartment, the CW received a LINE message from an Ai Akanishi asking her to meet and have drinks. The CW did not know Akanishi, who claimed to have gotten the CW’s LINE ID from “other people.” Despite feeling that the situation was odd, she agreed to have drinks with Akanishi and Akanishi’s boyfriend because Akanishi said that she was a Japanese student studying English like the CW. The CW agreed to meet Akanishi for drinks at Akanishi’s boyfriend’s house on October 25, 2013, on Kaunaoa Street. On that day, the CW biked to Kaunaoa Street to meet Akanishi and arrived at around 9:45 p.m. A man was sitting down on a bench when she arrived, and he directed her, in poor Japanese, to a dark corner where she could park her bicycle. The man was wearing a short sleeved shirt, pants, and a baseball hat, had brown colored arms and neck, and appeared to be Asian. 4 FOR PUBLICATION IN WEST’S HAWAI‘I REPORTS AND PACIFIC REPORTER When he asked her name, his Japanese did not sound good; according to the CW, it was “Japanese spoken by a nonnative speaker.” While the CW was walking her bike to the dark corner, the man stabbed her multiple times in the arm, back, and abdomen with a knife. She screamed and began running away with the man chasing her. The CW ran into the Diamondhead Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf shop, and the employees called the Honolulu Police Department (HPD). She was taken to the hospital, where she spoke to HPD Officer Gilbert Trevino in Japanese. The CW described the clothing that the assailant was wearing, and she told the officer the height of her attacker in centimeters, which he converted to 5’9”. In an interview with Detective (Det.) Nakama on October 27, 2013, she described the person who stabbed her as a male. The next day, she told Det. Nakama that the assailant could have been a woman, and that the voice was high for a male. In describing her injuries, the CW stated that she could no longer use her arm fully and still had scars from the knife wounds and post-stabbing surgeries.3 The CW testified that she did not believe that Miller was the individual who stabbed 3 Dr. David Inouye, an expert in surgery and surgery critical care, testified that he operated on the CW’s wounds, that they were caused by a knife, and that the wounds were life threatening. 5 FOR PUBLICATION IN WEST’S HAWAI‘I REPORTS AND PACIFIC REPORTER her because he spoke good Japanese, he did not have a motive, and he did not fit the physical shape of the person who stabbed her. The CW also testified that Kato was not the person who stabbed her.