KAILUA-KONA — Fifteen months after police began an investigation into a violent rape at Old Kona Airport Park, the victim testified in court last month on the alleged incident, describing her two attackers.
With two males, reportedly taking turns physically and sexually assaulting her, the victim testified her biggest priority was surviving.
“It seemed like I was really fighting for my life,” she stated.
The victim’s name was stated publicly in court. However, West Hawaii Today’s policy is not to identify sexual assault victims unless they choose to speak with the paper directly.
The victim testified during a preliminary hearing on Nov. 29. The hearing was for 17-year-old Tyron Sigrah, who has been charged as an adult for several sexual and physical assault charges.
The alleged incident occurred at 8:35 p.m. on Sept. 3, 2016. Hawaii police say two boys approached a woman, punched and sexually assaulted her. Police added the boys fled when confronted by an unidentified person.
Court documents filed Nov. 24 indicate Sigrah, as a principal and/or accomplice, knowingly subjected another person to an act of sexual penetration by strong compulsion.
Sigrah is facing three counts of first-degree sexual assault; second-degree sexual assault; kidnapping; second-degree robbery; first-degree terroristic threatening; and third-degree sexual assault. West Hawaii Today does not name minors who are suspects in criminal cases unless they have been charged as adults.
At the time of the alleged incident, police say Sigrah was days away from being 16. He was questioned and released into the custody of his father the day after the reported assault.
A second male has never been taken into custody. On Friday, Deputy Prosecutor Sheri Lawson would not comment on a possible co-defendant in the case.
West Hawaii Today reviewed testimony given during the Nov. 29 preliminary hearing after obtaining a copy of the hearing through a records request.
Two assailants
The victim told the court she first encountered two males as she was smoking a cigarette in the grassy area by Kona Aquatics Center at Old Kona Airport Park.
She described the males as young. One was skinny and the other was bigger with a stocky build.
“They asked me: ‘Hey, do you burn?’” the victim told the court. “That’s often times a way of welcoming people or being hospitable or friendly.”
Lawson asked the victim to clarify what “burn” means.
The woman testified it means to smoke pot. She added that she told the males she didn’t have anything. However, they invited her to hang out with them.
“I figured I’d hang out with them for a moment and be on my way,” the victim stated.
The victim told the court the three of them hopped a 5-foot fence and they walked for 30 seconds onto the field. During the time she was with them, she stated the males stole her cigarettes.
At one point, the woman testified that the skinnier male asked her if she would spend the night with him on the beach. She declined and went and sat down where the other male was sitting. Afterward, she stated, both males were on either side of her, rubbing her arms despite her asking them to stop.
“Right at that moment I was ready to go,” the woman stated.
The victim testified she told the males she didn’t appreciate them taking her cigarettes and that they were invading her space. At that point she got up and started walking across the field toward the road.
“I could hear them coming quickly behind me,” the woman testified.
She told the court that the bigger male cut her off while the skinnier male tackled her to the ground.
“The skinnier one was the first one to rape me,” the victim stated.
When she started screaming, the woman testified, she received a big punch to her face.
“I was punched so many times I can’t even remember,” she stated.
Lawson asked her if anything was said to her during the alleged ordeal.
The victim stated they said to her: “Shut the f— up.”
The woman described in detail the violent assault. She told the court one male held her down while another sexually assaulted her. They took turns. She stated she would scream, but got punched in the face and head multiple times.
The victim testified the males covered her face with a towel during the attack.
“They probably figured out I was pretty loud,” she testified. “They ended up suffocating me.”
The victim stated the males “swapped back and forth a few times.”
The woman told the court she was fighting for her life.
“I was wrestling and wrenching my neck back and forth trying to get air,” the victim stated.
The woman told the court she did eventually stop screaming.
“I was afraid the next blow would put me out or kill me,” the victim stated.
Good Samaritan intervenes
The victim told the court she saw a man walking by the pool outside the fence. She stated she filled her lungs with as much air as possible to scream.
“I think I only got the H-E-L out and they shoved the towel down on me quickly,” the victim testified.
The woman told the court she recalled the stranger call out and ask if everything was OK. Eventually, she stated, the stranger threatened to call police and the boys ran off.
The woman testified that the stranger — later identified as Brandon Lamont Morgan — came and sat with her. She doesn’t recall telling him what happened.
“He obviously knew he saved my life though,” the victim told the court.
The woman told the court about her injuries. She stated her ribs were badly bruised.
“My nose was shattered — broken into teeny tiny pieces,” she said.
Morgan told the court he was walking along Kuakini Highway past the soccer field to meet friends at the hockey rink when he heard a noise.
He didn’t think anything of it and then he heard a woman’s voice scream: “Help me!”
Morgan testified that he looked into the field and saw three figures. He yelled back saying: “Hello? Do you need help?”
Morgan told the court he was answered back by a young male who stated: “We’re good, homie.”
Morgan knew something wasn’t right and after a continued exchange of words with the males, he testified he told them he was going to call police and began climbing a 12-foot chain-link fence to get to where they were in the field.
Morgan testified it took about six seconds for him to get over the fence. As soon as he touched ground, he stated the boys ran off.
Morgan told the court he did pursue the males a short distance. However, his concern was for the victim, so he stopped chasing them and went to her side.
“She looked broken, in every sense of the word,” Morgan testified. “I wasn’t comfortable getting too close to her because she had just been raped.”
Morgan told the court he gave her his jacket or hoodie for her to cover herself. He also called 911.
Morgan wanted to note with the court that it took police 15 minutes to get to the scene.
“I never left her side,” he stated. “I was the last to leave the scene.”
Missing phone leads to suspect
The victim testified EMTs used a stretcher to put her in the ambulance. She was then taken to Kona Community Hospital where she underwent a Sexual Assault Nurses Exam to collect DNA and other physical evidence from the reported assault.
The victim told the court it wasn’t until later, while she was at the hospital that she realized her phone was missing.
Patrol Officer Andrew Springer also took the stand. He testified he was assigned to locate the victim’s phone using a “find my iPhone” app.
Springer told the court he tracked the phone to a housing complex in Kailua-Kona. He called the victim’s phone and heard it ring in one of the units. He knocked at that door and Sigrah answered.
Sigrah’s father arrived soon after. The teen and his father did go to the Kealakehe police station later that day on Sept. 4.
Testimony from lead detective at the time, Renee Morinaka, stated she spoke to the boy’s father about how the phone ended up in Sigrah’s possession. She told him the phone was connected to a crime and tracked to his residence.
A search warrant was prepared to collect DNA samples from Sigrah.
After advising him of his rights, Morinaka told the court that the teen made a statement to her that day.
According to the retired detective, Sigrah admitted to her he was at Old Airport the night of the reported assault and he did approach a female and strike her once.
“He didn’t put any part of his body in or on her,” Morinaka told the court as she recalled her conversation with Sigrah.
Morinaka testified that Sigrah’s father turned over the victim’s phone.
The charges Sigrah faces are four class A felonies, three class C felonies and one class B felony. According to Hawaii Revised Statutes, a class A felony carries a punishment of an indeterminate term of imprisonment of 20 years without the possibility of suspension of sentence or probation.
A jury trial date has been set for April.
