Tag: Crime

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Ex-soldier convicted of murder

Posted on: Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Hawaii man convicted in 1999 murder case

By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer

Darnell Griffin was convicted yesterday of the 1999 murder of Evelyn Luka in a “cold case” murder trial that was based largely on a DNA match made eight years after Luka was found strangled and near death beside H-2 Freeway.

A Circuit Court jury acquitted Griffin, 50, of a second charge of sexually assaulting the 19-year-old Luka before killing her.

Griffin was on parole from an earlier murder conviction when he met Luka the evening of Sept. 5, 1999, at a Kapi’olani Boulevard nightclub and offered her a ride to her Salt Lake area home. He attacked and strangled her, dumping her nearly lifeless body out of his car the following morning.

Prosecutor Kevin Takata called Griffin a sexual predator who “was on his way to becoming a serial killer” and called the conviction “one of the most gratifying” in his career as a prosecutor.

Griffin is believed to be the first defendant charged under a 1996 state law that calls for a life term without parole for a murderer convicted of a second murder.

“He will breathe his last in prison,” said Takata. “We’re getting him off the street and keeping him off the street.”

Griffin, a computer technician who came to Hawai’i while serving in the Army in the 1970s, said nothing when the verdict was read but spoke quietly with his attorney before court was adjourned.

Defense lawyer E. Edward Aquino was not available for comment after the verdict was returned.

Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario will sentence Griffin July 1.
family thankful

Luka’s brother, Air Force Maj. James Morimoto, tearfully thanked prosecutors and police for their work in the case, singling out HPD homicide Detective Sheryl Sunia for “having the insistence to see this through.”

Sunia arranged to have DNA evidence collected from Luka’s body analyzed and placed in a DNA database maintained by law enforcement here and on the Mainland.

After the Legislature passed a law in 2005 requiring all convicted felons, whether in prison or not, to contribute DNA samples to the database, Griffin’s parole officer obtained a sample from him in 2006.

That sample was matched to the Luka evidence in 2007.

Griffin’s defense in the trial was that he and Luka had consensual sex two days before the murder and that he was at home with his wife the night Luka died.

Griffin did not testify in the trial. His wife, Nancy, originally told police in 2007 that she couldn’t remember where her husband was on a specific night eight years earlier.

But she testified in the trial that Griffin was at home with her the night of the murder because it was a Sunday and Griffin “is always home on Sunday.”
possible suspects

During the trial, defense lawyer Aquino tried to cast suspicion on a number of other possible suspects in the case, including Luka’s husband, Kevin, who is also an Air Force major.

Morimoto said after the verdict, he and his sister and Kevin Luka were high school classmates and he called Kevin Luka “a good husband who loved and cared for my sister.”

“Kevin and his family and our family have suffered so much,” Morimoto said, both in the aftermath of Evelyn’s death and during the course of the trial.

Takata said the jury’s decision to acquit Griffin of the sex assault charge was “curious” but didn’t matter given the murder conviction.

“I can understand that the jurors had problems with the charge,” Takata said.

Takata praised Deputy Prosecutor Leilani Tan for her assistance in the trial, saying she pointed out that the pants Luka was wearing when police found her were oversized and baggy and could not have belonged to her.

Takata argued to the jury that the pants were the same size worn by Griffin’s wife and that Griffin dressed the victim in replacement clothing after tearing off her original clothing when he attacked her.

Reach Jim Dooley at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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Filipinas protest US soldier rape acquittal

Transcript of video news story follows.

April 25, 2009

Filipinas protest US soldier rape acquittal

Philippines protests and calls to end US Visiting Forces Agreement in response to appeals court decision

Transcript

(VOICEOVER): A Philippine appeals court overturned the 2006 rape conviction of a US marine and ordered his immediate release on Thursday, setting off condemnations from activists to major newspapers across the country. A suburban Manila court convicted Lance Corporal Daniel Smith (pix of Smith) of raping a Filipino woman in the company of fellow Marines at the former US Subic Bay Naval base three years ago and sentenced him to life in prison. The US base was closed in 1992 on the insistence of the Philippines, but the US maintains a military presence there under a status of forces agreement with the country. The case has become a rallying point for anti-American protests in the country. (protesters holding placards reading: “Acquittal of Smith is a collusion between US and Philippine governments.”) The Philippine Court of Appeals overturned the ruling, indicating the sexual act was consensual. “No evidence was introduced to show force, threat and intimidation applied by the accused,” the court said in its 71-page decision, which is final. It ordered the immediate release of Smith, 23 years old, of St Louis, Missouri, from his detention at the US Embassy in Manila. Smith’s lawyer said his client “got the justice that he deserved,” but activist groups condemned it, saying it was proof of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s subservience to America.

LOTLOT REQUIZA, PROTESTOR (SUBTITLED TRANSLATION): “Our group is very angry about the acquittal of Daniel Smith because we know this is a collusion between the United States and the (Gloria) Macapagal-Arroyo government. What Gloria is doing is saddening and unfathomable because now Filipino women have no protection in their own country.”

(VOICEOVER): In March, Nicole, the woman who accused Smith of rape altered her testimony and emigrated to the United States in a dramatic twist in the case, saying she was no longer certain that a crime had taken place. The Philippine Daily Inquirer, the largest newspaper in the country, reports that Evalyn Ursua, the lawyer who represented Nicole before the recantation, condemned the courts ruling.
TEXT ON SCREEN: “It was a sweet ending to a story line two allies have been writing all along.” Ursua said. She went on. She said–

(VOICEOVER) (TEXT ON SCREEN): “I see this as a culmination of a long pattern to make this case go away. We clearly see political maneuverings to make us lose this… The Philippine government never supported Nicole from day one. Everything just fits, falls into place… We already saw pressure from the US, the hand of the US from day one. We also saw how the Philippine government gave in to the pressure.”

The high-profile case prompted Washington to threaten to call off large-scale exercises with Manila until Smith was transferred to a detention center within the US Embassy. The lawyer, Ursua, took exception to part of the ruling that said the prosecution failed to prove force while Smith was with an intoxicated Nicole inside a moving van at the Subic Bay Freeport, a former US naval base. Ursua said–

(SUBTITLED TRANSLATION): “We do not agree with that because you have to take into context that Nicole was severely intoxicated. She tried to resist but she was too intoxicated,” said Ursua.

In the lower court, In proving rape against Smith, the prosecution had shown the evidence that Nicole was too drunk to have consensual sex when she was with Smith on the night of November 1, 2005. The appeals court found that it wasn’t rape, but a spontaneous, unplanned romantic episode stirred by alcoholic drinks. The reversal sets a discouraging precedent for other rape complainants, Ursua said.

VOIVEOVER (TEXT ON SCREEN): “It will discourage victims from reporting and pursuing their cases. This will influence trial courts in how they look at cases of similar circumstances, where the victims are in a state of intoxication,” said the lawyer.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports that Sen. Francis Pangilinan said he was disturbed by the ruling and wondered if Nicole’s “highly questionable recantation” had a heavy impact on the court.

(VOICEOVER) (TEXT ON SCREEN): “It must be remembered that the recantation of Nicole was facilitated by lawyers of the accused. One cannot help but wonder if all that was done in order to lay the groundwork for this acquittal. The acquittal raises more questions than answers.”

Sen. Francis Escudero said Smith’s acquittal was “unfortunate and only reinforces our position that the US Visiting Forces Agreement carries too high a social cost and should be immediately abrogated. We believe this is as good a time as any to act decisively and finally abrogate the VFA. The time for debate and discussion is over; how many Nicoles must there be for us to realize that sovereignty should be absolute and non-negotiable?

(VOICEOVER): He went on–

(TEXT ON SCREEN): “The issue of military security, which has long been the rationale for the VFA, takes second precedence to the more important issues of social welfare, the Filipina’s rights, and our national sovereignty,” he said.

DISCLAIMER:

Please note that TRNN transcripts are typed from a recording of the program; The Real News Network cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.

Source: http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=3612

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Stryker soldier charged with pimping two teen girls

http://www.thenewstribune.com/331/story/713069.html

Tacoma, WA – Saturday, April 18, 2009

Fort Lewis soldier charged with pimping

Prosecutors say Stryker infantryman used two teen girls as prostitutes

STACEY MULICK; stacey.mulick@thenewstribune.com
Last updated: April 18th, 2009 03:38 AM (PDT)

Pierce County prosecutors have charged a Fort Lewis soldier with promoting prostitution, alleging he directed two teenage girls to trade sex for money.

Sgt. Sterling Terrance Hospedales, a 25-year-old infantryman, also could face federal charges in connection with the continuing investigation, said Robbie Burroughs, a spokeswoman for the Seattle FBI office.

Hospedales was arraigned Thursday on two counts of first-degree promoting prostitution and was being held in the Pierce County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail. The Florida native is assigned to the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team and has been stationed at Fort Lewis since March 2005.

The case began with an investigation by the Pacific Northwest’s Innocence Lost Task Force, part of a federal initiative launched in June 2003. The local task force, with branches in Tacoma, Everett and Seattle, was established last summer.

A task force investigator came across information about a missing girl who might be in the Lakewood area. She was listed on the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s Web site, Burroughs said.

The tip was investigated, then passed along to the Tacoma branch of the task force and to two Lakewood police officers on the unit.

“They took this information and ran with it,” Burroughs said.

Officers with the task force found the missing girl, 16, and a second missing girl, 17, advertising prostitution services on Craigslist, the online classifieds site, charging documents state.

Officers made a date with the 17-year-old girl and met her at a local fast-food restaurant. She was with the 16-year-old girl, whom Hospedales had flown to Seattle from Wyoming, the court documents state.

The girls were detained and interviewed, the court documents state. They indicated Hospedales was their pimp and had taken and posted nude photos of them on the Internet, according to the documents.

“The females reported that Hospedales takes any money that they earn and it is put in a safe or in a drawer in his bedroom,” the documents state.

The girls said they lived with Hospedales and had their “dates” on an air mattress in the living room. Officers served a search warrant on the apartment and found an air mattress, handcuffs and other items the girls had described.

Officers said they found several threatening messages from Hospedales on the girls’ cell phones, the court documents state.

Hospedales was arrested as he left his apartment and booked into jail early Wednesday. He had an envelope containing $882 and the 16-year-old’s birth certificate with him at the time, according to the court documents.

“Hospedales told police that he thought the girls ran off with another pimp, so he took the money out of his safe so they couldn’t steal it from him,” the charging documents state.
The documents provide no details about when the girls were interviewed and where Hospedales’ apartment is.

Fort Lewis officials are aware of the charges against Hospedales, spokeswoman Catherine Caruso said Friday. The Army typically waits until the criminal case in civilian court is completed before taking action against a soldier, she said.

Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268
blogs.thenewstribune.com/crime
Originally published: April 18th, 2009 12:17 AM (PDT)

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Trial of Darnell Griffin begins for 1999 murder of Evelyn Luka

April 16, 2009

Trial opens in 1999 cold-case murder

By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer

The “cold case” murder trial of Darnell Griffin opened this morning in Circuit Court, with a prosecutor telling jurors, “The man who raped and murdered Evelyn Luka (in 1999) remained a mystery until 2007.”

That’s when DNA evidence recovered from Luka was matched to a DNA sample taken in 2004 from Griffin, now 50 years old, Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Takata said in his opening statement.

“For almost eight years, Evelyn’s rape and murder remained unsolved,” Takata said.

Griffin’s lawyer, Deputy Public Defender E. Edward Aquino, told jurors that Griffin and Luka “had consensual sex” two days before she was attacked and that Griffin was at home with his family the night of the assault.

Luka’s murder “is a mystery today that does not get solved with Darnell Griffin as the answer,” Aquino said.
Luka was found unconscious and in convulsions the morning of Sept. 6, 1999, lying on a median beside H-2 Freeway near Ka Uka Boulevard.

She had been raped and strangled and died the next month.

The night of the attack, witnesses said she was seen leaving a Kapiolani boulevard night club with a man who matched Griffin’s physical description in a car like the one Griffin owned at the time, according to Takata and court records.

What jurors won’t be told during the trial is that Griffin gave a DNA sample in 2004 because he was on parole for the 1980 murder of another young woman, Lynn Gheradi.

That information is being withheld as evidence in the Luka murder case because it has been ruled too prejudicial to Griffin’s rights to a fair trial.

Griffin, a computer technician, was paroled in 1996.
The DNA collected from him in 2004 wasn’t matched with evidence collected in the Luka case until 2007. He was then indicted on second-degree murder and first-degree sex assault charges.

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090416/BREAKING01/90416060

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More than meets the eye on the Somali ‘pirates’ story

‘Pirates’ Strike a U.S. Ship Owned by a Pentagon Contractor, But Is the Media Telling the Whole Story?

By Jeremy Scahill, Rebel Reports

Posted on April 8, 2009, Printed on April 9, 2009

http://www.alternet.org/story/135716/

UPDATE: At least one nuclear-powered U.S. warship is reportedly on its way to the scene of the hijacking off the coast of Somalia of a vessel owned by a major Pentagon contractor. A U.S. official told the Associated Press the destroyer USS Bainbridge is en route while another official said six or seven ships are responding to the takeover of the “Maersk Alabama,” which is part of a fleet of ships owned by Maersk Ltd., a U.S. subsidiary of a Denmark firm, which does about a half-billion dollars in business with the U.S. government a year.

The Somali pirates who took control of the 17,000-ton “Maersk Alabama” cargo-ship in the early hours of Wednesday morning probably were unaware that the ship they were boarding belonged to a U.S. Department of Defense contractor with “top security clearance,” which does a half-billion dollars in annual business with the Pentagon, primarily the Navy. The ship was being operated by an “all-American” crew — there were 20 U.S. nationals on the ship. “Every indication is that this is the first time a U.S.-flagged ship has been successfully seized by pirates,” said Lt. Nathan Christensen, a spokesperson for for the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. The last documented pirate attack of a U.S. vessel by African pirates was reported in 1804, off Libya, according to The Los Angeles Times.

The company, A.P. Moller-Maersk, is a Denmark-based company with a large U.S. subsidiary, Maersk Line, Ltd, that serves U.S. government agencies and contractors. The company, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia, runs the world’s largest fleet of U.S.-flag vessels. The “Alabama” was about 300 miles off the coast of the Puntland region of northern Somalia when it was taken. The U.S. military says the Alabama was not operating on a DoD contract at the time and was said to be delivering food aid.

The closest U.S. warship to the “Alabama” at the time of the seizure was 300 miles away. The U.S. Navy did not say how or if it would respond, but seemed not to rule out intervention. “It’s fair to say we are closely monitoring the situation, but we will not discuss nor speculate on current and future military operations,” said Navy Cmdr. Jane Campbell.

The seizure of the ship seemed to have been short-lived. At the time of this writing, the Pentagon was reporting that the U.S. crew retook the ship and was holding one of the pirates in custody. At this point, it is unclear if the crew acted alone or had assistance from the military or another security force.

Over the past year, there has been a dramatic uptick in media coverage of the “pirates,” particularly in the Gulf of Aden. Pirates reportedly took in upwards of $150 million in ransoms last year alone. In fact, at the moment the Alabama’s seizure, pirates were already holding 14 other vessels with about 200 crew members, according to the International Maritime Bureau. There have been seven hijackings in the past month alone.

Often, the reporting on pirates centers around the gangsterism of the pirates and the seemingly huge ransoms they demand. Indeed, piracy can be a very profitable business, as the following report from Reuters suggests:

A rough back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that the operation to hijack the Saudi tanker, the Sirius Star, cost no more than $25,000, assuming that the pirates bought new equipment and weapons ($450 apiece for an AK-47 Kalashnikov, $5,000 for an RPG-7 grenade launcher, $15,000 for a speedboat). That contrasts with an initial ransom demand to the tanker’s owner, Saudi Aramco, of $25 million.

“Piracy is an excellent business model if you operate from an impoverished, lawless place like Somalia,” says Patrick Cullen, a security expert at the London School of Economics who has been researching piracy. “The risk-reward ratio is just huge.”

But this type of coverage of the pirates is similar to the false narrative about “tribalism” being the cause of all of Africa’s problems. Of course, there are straight-up gangsters and criminals engaged in these hijackings. Perhaps the pirates who hijacked the Alabama on Wednesday fall into that category. We do not yet know. But that is hardly the whole “pirate” story. Consider what one pirate told The New York Times after he and his men seized a Ukrainian freighter “loaded with tanks, artillery, grenade launchers and ammunition” last year. “We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits,” said Sugule Ali:. “We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.” Now, that “coast guard” analogy is a stretch, but his point is an important and widely omitted part of this story. Indeed the Times article was titled, “Somali Pirates Tell Their Side: They Want Only Money.” Yet, The New York Times acknowledged, “the piracy industry started about 10 to 15 years ago… as a response to illegal fishing.”

Take this fact: Over $300 million worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobster are “being stolen every year by illegal trawlers” off Somalia’s coast, forcing the fishing industry there into a state of virtual non-existence.

But it isn’t just the theft of seafood. Nuclear dumping has polluted the environment. “In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed,” wrote Johann Hari in The Independent. “Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since — and the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country’s food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.”

According to Hari:

As soon as the [Somali] government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.
…
This is the context in which the “pirates” have emerged. Somalian fishermen took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least levy a “tax” on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia — and ordinary Somalis agree. The independent Somalian news site WardheerNews found 70 per cent “strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence.”

As the media coverage of the pirates has increased, private security companies like Xe/Blackwater have stepped in, seeing profits. A few months ago, Blackwater executives flew to London to meet with shipping company executives about protecting their ships from pirate attacks. In October, the company deployed the MacArthur, its “private sector warship equipped with helicopters” to the Gulf of Aden. “We have been contacted by shipowners who say they need our help in making sure goods get to their destination,” said the company’s executive vice-president, Bill Matthews. “The McArthur can help us accomplish that.”

According to an engineer aboard the MacArthur, the ship, whose crew includes former Navy SEALS, was at one point stationed in an area several hundred miles off the coast of Yemen. “Security teams will escort ships around both horns of Africa, Somalia and Yemen as they head to the Suez Canal… The McArthur will serve as a staging point for the SEALs and their smaller boats.”

All of this is important to keep in context any time you see a short blurb pop up about pirates attacking ships. “Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our toxic waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome?” Hari asked. “We won’t act on those crimes — the only sane solution to this problem — but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for 20 percent of the world’s oil supply, we swiftly send in the gunboats.”

***

Just as it seemed that this drama was coming to an end, the story has taken a very bizarre turn. It seems as though the pirates essentially tricked the ship’s “all-American” crew into handing over the Alabama’s captain, Capt. Richard Phillips.

After reports, based on Pentagon sources, emerged that the ship had been retaken by the US crew, word came from the ship that the captain of the “Alabama” had been taken by the pirates onto a lifeboat. The details of how exactly the four pirates managed to get the captain onto a lifeboat are still sketchy, but it seems a little bit like a scene out of a Marx brothers movie. The ship’s second mate Kenn Quinn was interviewed on CNN and described how the crew was essentially tricked into handing the captain over to the pirates. Quinn spoke to CNN’s Kyra Phillips:

Quinn: When they board, they sank their boats so the captain talked them into getting off the ship with the lifeboat. But we took one of their pirates hostage and did an exchange. What? Huh? Okay. I’ve got to go.

Phillips: Ken, can you stay with me for just two more seconds?

Quinn: What?

Phillips: Can you tell me about the negotiations, what you’ve offered these pirates in exchange for your captain?

Quinn: We had one of their hostages. We had a pirate we took and kept him for 12 hours. We tied him up and he was our prisoner.

Phillips: Did you return him?

Quinn: Yeah, we did. But we returned him but they didn’t return the captain. So now we’re just trying to offer them whatever we can. Food. But it’s not working too good.”

As TV Newser pointed out, “Later Phillips gave what may be the understatement of the day: ‘It sounds like the pirates did not keep their end of the deal.'”

Jeremy Scahill, an independent journalist who reports frequently for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now!, has spent extensive time reporting from Iraq and Yugoslavia. He is currently a Puffin Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute. Scahill is the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. His writing and reporting is available at RebelReports.com.

© 2009 Rebel Reports All rights reserved.

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Marines attempted to sell stolen night-vision goggles

Federal Agents Tight-Lipped About Bluff City Raid

By Michael Owens
Reporter / Bristol Herald Courier
Published: April 2, 2009

BLUFF CITY, Tenn. – The federal police raid of a house here Wednesday morning might be connected to alleged attempts by active duty Marines to sell stolen military night-vision scopes in Hawaii.

Linked to the home at 288 Jonesboro Drive is Lance Cpl. Ronald William Abram, 20, who faces federal charges of conspiring to sell eight scopes to a Hong Kong buyer for $20,000. His father, Ronnie Abram, lives at the house, according to directory listings.

So far, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has remained tight-lipped about the reasons for the search. A department spokesman, citing the search as part of an open investigation, refused to comment.

More than 20 officers from ICE, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Navy Criminal Investigative Service, the U.S. Marshals Service, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Tennessee Highway Patrol stormed the two-story house at 9 a.m. They arrived in cars, vans and SUVs sporting license plates from Louisiana, Illinois and Tennessee.

Also there were local firefighters, who helped officers crack open a knee-high safe with pneumatic shears, called the “Jaws of Life,” which are primarily used to pry people from wrecked cars. Pulled from inside the safe was a small, wooden box.

One federal official, spotted through the open front door, sat at the living room computer typing and reading.

NCIS spokesman Ed Buice confirmed that some evidence was seized, but declined to elaborate. No arrests were made, he added.

“Hopefully, we can talk more about it in the future,” he said.

The Bristol Herald Courier could not reach family members. Ronnie Abram’s phone has been disconnected, and calls to other family members were not returned.

Wednesday’s raid was not the first time that Ronald William Abram drew law enforcement officers to his parents’ Jonesboro Drive home. The Herald Courier earlier reported that a domestic dispute call brought officers there on April 3, 2007. At the time, Ronald William Abram was on leave from his base at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

Bluff City Police officers, while attempting to sort out the evening’s events, handcuffed a drunk Ronald William Abram and left him in the back of a police cruiser. He somehow dismantled a radar antenna inside the cruiser and used it to scratch the Plexiglas barrier between the front and rear seats, police said.

The Marine eventually pleaded guilty to public intoxication and was fined $50. But prosecutors dropped the charges of vandalism and underage drinking under assurance that the Marine Corp. would deal with the behavior, the Herald Courier reported.

Last July, he again landed on authorities’ radar when ICE agents uncovered a scheme to sell stolen night vision scopes on the Internet auction site eBay, according to federal indictments filed at the U.S. District Court in Honolulu. The eBay ad eventually led them to Hawaii and six Marines stationed there.

By September 2008, undercover agents bought eight scopes in a sting that indictments state netted the arrests of Ronald Abram and five others, including Abingdon, Va., native Cpl. Mark Allen Vaught. Agents traced the scopes, which had the serial numbers filed off, to a Marine base.

Honolulu-based Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris A. Thomas said by telephone that Ronald William Abram and two others have decided to fight the charges in civilian federal court. Vaught and three others will allow a military court to hear their cases, he said.

mowens@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2549

Source: http://www.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/federal_agents_tight-lipped_about_bluff_city_raid/22508/

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Army had more gang-related incidents in Hawai’i than anywhere else

Ian Lind found an interesting source of information about gang related activity in Hawai’i.  He noted “the U.S. Army had more gang-related incidents in Hawaii during 2004-2005 than in any other part of the world.”

Here is the full Army report on gang-related activity.

Here’s Ian Lind’s post:

Wednesday…Army reports describe gang-related incidents at Schofield Barracks

March 18th, 2009

You never know what you might find in a collection of government documents. That’s why I love to browse. I used to wander through sections of the university library just to see what was there. Same with bookstores. Now I let my fingers on the keyboard do the walking.

This week, I saw a description of a new web site, GovernmentAttic.org, which compiles documents which have been released in response to Freedom of Information Requests.

Nosing around a bit, I found an interesting report on gang-related crimes involving U.S. Army personnel which described a number of cases in Hawaii.

Taking a closer look, it appears the U.S. Army had more gang-related incidents in Hawaii during 2004-2005 than in any other part of the world, according to a September 2005 report of gang activity compiled by the Army’s Crime Records Center.

Hawaii recorded 8 gang related incidents during the period from January 2004 through August 2005, nearly one-third of the 29 such incidents cited in the report. Bases with the next highest number of incidents were Fort Hood, Texas, which reported four incidents, and Ft. Leanard Wood, Missouri, with three. The Army garrisons at Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels, Germany, also reported a total of three incidents.

The report and assessment of gang activity was ordered by the Army Chief of Staff following two gang-related murders in August 2005, one in Germany and the other in Alaska.

According to the report, incidents were escalated into criminal investigations whenever the initial complaints were found to be credible and the Army had jurisdiction. Two of the resulting 12 investigations by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division Command were of incidents at Schofield Barracks or involving Schofield soldiers or dependents.

In one Hawaii case, the 20-year old husband of an active duty soldier was arrested on base for driving without a license and a small amount of marijuana was found in his car. “Various gang paraphernalia” were also found, and the man admitted to being a member of the Crips, a gang which originated in Los Angeles in the late 1960s.

In the second incident, a Schofield soldier and a civilian were involved in an off-base verbal confrontation with two civilians, which resulted in the shooting of one of the civilians. An investigation found the soldier was a reported member of the gang known as “La Familia”.

The report provides a summary:

The gang originated in the prisons of Hawaii to protect the members from other gangs. The gang consists of approximately 100 male members aged 18 to 45. Members are predominantly of Pacific Islander race with a few of its members being from other races. The gang tends to recruit anyone who is willing to join. The gang’s main rivals are the United Samoan Organization (USO) gang, which is the largest organized gang in the state of Hawaii (with no known military nexus).

A follow-up report in December 2006 cited two additional drug investigations at Schofield with links to a gang known as “Street Military”.

• The 21-year old husband of a Schofield Solder was stopped for speeding. A search of his car “resulted in the recovery of 17 bags of marihuana (a total of 35 grams), various items of drug parpheralia and a small amount of cocaine. The man claimed to belong to the “Street Military”.

• Another case involved drug dealing by a Schofield solder, who was caught with “illegal drugs and two scales in his barracks room.”

According to the report, the man “had a tattoo of a Kanji symbol that translates to mean family with ‘Bama-Boy’ under it. This is a marking known to be associated with the Street Military street gang.”

The 2006 report includes this description of the “Street Military” gang.

Street Military – Criminal acts attributed to the gang, occurring on and off-post include Illegal Weapons Charges, Possession/Use/Distribution of Controlled Substances, and Desertion. To date there are three incidents involving weapons. This gang is determined to have a moderate propensity to commit violence. Available intelligence suggests that the gang is moderately organized and has a rank structure. The gang was organized on Schofield Barracks, HI.

The gang consists of approximately 20-25 members ages 18-30. The group is comprised of mostly military members that have come from gang related backgrounds (Bloods, Crips, Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings). These members are not known to proclaim gang involvement but due to intelligence gathered they definitely fit the definition of a gang. Due to the versatile background there are no known colors, clothing or signs. Several members are reported to have a Japanese Kanji symbol on their forearm, which translates into “The Family” with their nickname under the symbol. There is additional intelligence that members of Street Military have decided to form a separate gang called “Wolfgang”. These members motivation to sell drugs was to make money to support a music career. This gang was unstable and unorganized which caused it to break down and disseminate.

The 2006 report also cites two investigations by the Honolulu Police Department where gang membership was noted.

One case involved five soldiers who were members of the Street Miltary and were found with illegal drugs.

“The investigation established the individuals had a rifle that was discharged in a parking lot,” the report states.

The last case involved eight juveniles who were sons of active duty soldiers. Two of them claimed to be members of the Crips.

Investigation established the subjects were involved in a disagreement over suspected drug activity. The altercation became physical, at which time one of the suspected gang members produced a screwdriver and stabbed multiple individuals.”

Gang-related incidents accounted for only a very small share of all criminal cases investigated by military authorities and were rated a low-level threat.

But with civilian authorities shying away from public discussion of local gang-related crimes, and news media failing to follow the scent, the Army reports provide a welcome source of information and perspective.

Source: http://ilind.net/2009/03/18/wednesdayarmy-reports-describe-gang-related-incidents-at-schofield-barracks/

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Ex-soldier gets life term for rape of his infant daughter

March 13, 2009

Dad gets life term for infant’s rape

Plea deal calls for at least 15 years in prison before seeking parole

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

An O’ahu man who admitted in court last year that he repeatedly raped his infant child and videotaped the incidents was sentenced yesterday to life in prison with the possibility of parole – a sentence normally reserved for convicted killers.

Under the terms of a plea agreement, Danny Friddle will not ask for parole until he has served at least 15 years in prison and prosecutors will not ask the Hawai’i Paroling Authority to set a minimum term for Friddle of more than 20 years.

First Deputy City Prosecutor Douglas Chin said he believes the life term is the harshest sentence ever handed down in a sexual assault case in Hawai’i.

State law normally calls for no more than 20 years in prison for someone convicted of first-degree sexual assault.

Friddle pleaded guilty Dec. 8 in Circuit Court to eight counts of first-degree sexual assault, three counts of second-degree sexual assault and three counts of first-degree promotion of child abuse.

In handing down the sentence of life with the possibility of parole for Friddle, Circuit Judge David Broder granted a request by Chin for an extended prison term for what Chin had described as the “shocking, despicable and abominable” crimes Friddle committed against the infant. By agreeing to the plea deal, Friddle avoided the possibility of being sentenced to eight consecutive 20-year prison terms, Chin said.

Friddle’s lawyer, Jason Burks, said after the court hearing that his client pleaded guilty to all of the charges against him “because it was the right thing to do” and felt the agreement was “a fair result for him.”

He said Friddle himself was a sex assault victim both as a child and young adult.

“Many times, sexual assault perpetrators have been sexual assault victims in the past,” Burks said.

He said he was making that observation on behalf of Friddle, although Friddle has never used the sexual assaults against him as an excuse for what he did to his own child.

“Danny is at a loss as to why it happened and how he ended up here,” Burks said. “He doesn’t know why it happened and he doesn’t have any excuses for what he did.”

Friddle was arrested by Ho- nolulu police in March 2008 after a backpack containing a videotape of the assaults was discovered at a Kalihi bus stop.

Chin said that a child found the backpack and gave it to a parent, who turned it over to police after viewing the video.

He said previously that Friddle’s crimes might have gone undetected if the backpack had not been found at the bus stop.

To this day, it is not known who put the tape at the bus stop, Chin said.

Court records show that the assaults began in June 2006 on the day Friddle’s daughter was born. According to the indictment, one series of assaults on the videotape occurred from June through September 2006 and the other from October 2006 to March 2008.

Friddle came to Hawai’i with the Army in 2003 and was married here in December 2005. He was divorced in September 2007.

After leaving the military, Friddle worked as a car salesman and as a security guard, according to court records.

Friddle’s identity card with a local security guard company was found in the backpack. His ex-wife identified him as the man on the videotape, according to police reports.

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Navy vet sentenced to life for murder of stepfather

Timothy Adarna, who took an early discharge from the Navy, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his stepfather Robert Ramos. Adarna stabbed Ramos numerous times then set the body on fire.   Here are a couple of earlier articles:

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Nov/17/ln/FP611170359.html

http://starbulletin.com/2008/07/19/news/story10.html

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March 13, 2009

Man who killed stepfather in Ewa Beach sentenced to life in prison

By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer

Timothy Adarna was sentenced to life in prison this morning for killing his stepfather, Robert Ramos, two years ago in Ewa Beach.

Relatives of Ramos waited in court for Adarna to apologize for his actions or explain them, but he said nothing.

Adarna remained silent as Circuit Judge Michael Town imposed a life sentence with the possibility of parole for the murder and 20 years for a related arson charge.
The two prison sentences will be served simultaneously. Under terms of a plea agreement, both the prosecution and defense agreed that Adarna will not seek parole until he has served at least 20 years behind bars.
Robin Turner, niece of the victim, spoke for Ramos’ family after the hearing.

She said the family was “dumbfounded that something like this, in such a gruesome manner, could happen.”
She described Ramos, 55, as “a great person.”

“We don’t have any ill wishes toward anyone, toward Timmy,” Turner said. “It’s just a loss for everyone.”
But she said the Ramos family hoped for an apology and an explanation from Adarna, 23.

“When you accept responsibility but you can’t say you’re sorry or apologize, that makes it much more difficult,” she said.

Adarna was convicted in a jury trial last year of first degree arson for setting fire to the house in which Ramos’ body was found. But the jury couldn’t reach a verdict on the murder charge.

Adarna pleaded guilty to that charge in January.

Adarna, a Campbell High School graduate and military veteran, has said previously that he didn’t remember the circumstances of the crime.

After Adarna pleaded guilty in January to second degree murder, defense lawyer David Hayakawa called the case a “mystifying” one that will apparently never be fully explained.

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090313/BREAKING01/90313054/-1

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Statement by National Campaign for Eradication of Crime by U.S.Troops in Korea on Osan Stabbing

Statement 11 March 2009

The US soldier in Korea suspected for attempted murder must be in custody by Korean Police in Pyeongtaek

At dawn on Friday, 6th of March 2009, a US soldier in Korea stabbed a Filipino woman 18 times almost causing her to death.

According to the press, the US soldier from Camp Humphrey, Pyeontaek attacked the woman with a knife at the club street near Osan air base, who was on her way home. He also caused damages to two Korean men who rushed to her aid after hearing her screams. The Korean police arrested the U.S soldier at the scene but after checking his identification they handed him over to the U.S military police.

On Thursday, 12th of March 2009 after 6 days of the incident the Pyeongtaek Police will investigate the U.S soldier answer the summons. This is the first investigation of the incident. On the day of the attack the U.S soldier also hurt his finger through scuffle with the men who were trying to stop him. Hence, the explanation for late investigation was because the U.S soldier had to go under treatment. However setting up the investigation 6 days later is over the boundaries of humanitarian concern. Generally Korean polices investigate in 48 hours when they arrest the criminal in the very act. The reason why initial investigation must be done in 48 hours after arresting the suspect is to prevent destruction of evidence and fabricating testimony. 6 days have passed since the incident meaning that the Korean police have opened possibilities of damaging the evidence and fabricating statement.

Humanitarian concern is only applied to the U.S soldier.

The initial investigation was delayed to give treatment to the U.S soldier. The authority of U.S. forces in Pyeongtaek paid for his treatment fee which was around 1,900,000 won and checked him out of the hospital. Then what kind of humanitarian concern is given to the woman? The woman was repeatedly stabbed and had serious internal wounds. She was in critical condition and luckily after the surgery she has been stabilized. However, now she is faced with medical bills amounting to 5,000,000won and more for her further treatment.

The commander of Army’s 2nd Infantry Division where the U.S soldier belongs issued a news release saying “We regret this incident took place and our sympathies are with the victims involved.” “We will work closely with the Korean authorities to investigate this matter and bring the perpetrator to justice.” However there was no apology to the woman and any mentioning of taking care of the victims treatment.

Pyeongtaek Police must request arrest warrant for the U.S Soldier.

If this kind of incident happened between Koreans or any other foreigners living in Korea they would be properly arrested without question. Korea has jurisdiction over this case so following right procedures the U.S soldier must be arrested and sentenced in the Korean court. The U.S must comply with Korean authorities and hand over the U.S soldier. They should also pay the entire cost for the woman’s treatment.

Recently, the Korean police and prosecutor’s office have been stressing for stricter laws to be applied to illegality and violence. We will be watching closely to see if these tough measures are applied to this case involving a U.S soldier.

– National Campaign for Eradication of Crime by U.S.Troops in Korea –

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