The maternal uncle of a man accused of a fatal shooting on Nov. 26, 2015, said Wednesday his nephew was at a Thanksgiving party the uncle hosted at his Kalapana home and couldn’t have been in Hilo when the shooting took place.
Michael O’Shaughnessy, a 77-year-old retired archaeologist and longtime Puna Canoe Club president, testified in the Hilo Circuit Court trial of his nephew, 40-year-old Kalani Kaohimaunu.
Kaohimaunu is charged with second-degree murder for the Thanksgiving evening shotgun slaying of 39-year-old Keola Penovaroff.
The shooting took place on the 143 West Kawailani St. property then owned by Kaohimaunu’s mother, Kathie Kaohimaunu. Penovaroff was the boyfriend of Venus Mitchell, one of Kathie Kaohimaunu’s tenants.
The day prior to the shooting, Kathie Kaohimaunu prevailed in a landlord-tenant dispute court hearing, and Mitchell, her two children, and her mother, Bonnie Mitchell Fox, were evicted from the property.
Testimony during the murder trial indicated one of the issues was sleepovers on the property by Penovaroff in violation of what Kathie Kaohimaunu described Tuesday as a verbal lease agreement with Mitchell and Fox.
Kalani Kaohimaunu didn’t testify, but his defense has been that he was at O’Shaughnessy’s party and was not the man Venus Mitchell testified she saw get out of a blue Honda sedan, confront Penovaroff, and then shoot him.
O’Shaunessy testified Kalani Kaohimaunu arrived alone at his party during the daylight hours of Nov. 26, 2015, and was still at the get-together when O’Shaughnessy went to bed between 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.
“Now, did you have anything to drink that night?” asked Aaron Wills, Kaohimaunu’s court-appointed attorney.
“Oh, yeah,” O’Shaughnessy replied.
“Now, would you say you had too much to drink and you can’t remember anything?” Wills inquired.
“No,” O’Shaughnessy answered.
“And why would you say that?” Wills queried.
“Because I was working most of the time and didn’t have time to drink a whole lot,” O’Shaughnessy said.
Backing O’Shaughnessy’s account was Avery Kahookaulana-Sulprizio, a lineman for Hawaiian Electric Co. who testified he arrived at the party at about 4 p.m. and that Kaohimaunu was already there.
“Didn’t you tell (an) officer that Kalani arrived at approximately 8 p.m.?” Deputy Prosecutor Joseph Lee asked.
“I don’t recall that … ,” Kahookaulana-Sulprizio replied.
Wills brought Mitchell, who testified for the prosecution, back to the stand Wednesday as the defense’s final witness.
Mitchell had testified during the state’s case that she saw Kaohimaunu get out of his Honda sedan and shoot Penovaroff.
Wills sought to paint Mitchell as an unreliable eyewitness because the shooting occurred after 10 p.m. and Mitchell, by her own testimony, had been smoking methamphetamine with Penovaroff prior to the incident.
Wills asked Mitchell if she and Penovaroff had been arguing previously on that Thanksgiving evening, and Mitchell replied they had.
“Isn’t it true that your arguments with Keola had become violent in the past?” Wills asked.
“Um, it had gotten physical,” Mitchell replied.
Wills also questioned Mitchell about why she testified she saw and heard only one gunshot when she told police in 2015 she saw two flashes and heard two shots.
Mitchell replied she was dealing with the trauma of the event when first questioned by police.
On cross-examination, Lee asked Mitchell, “How sure were you that the person you saw step out of that Honda on Nov. 26, 2015, was Kalani?”
“One-hundred percent,” Mitchell replied.
Jury instructions and closing arguments are scheduled for 9:30 a.m. today in the courtroom of Judge Henry Nakamoto.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
