LIHU’E – Kaua’i women are registering mixed reaction to reports that an
Ele’ele grandfather set his wife on fire while their grandchild
watched.
“He should burn like he burned her,” said one Kaua’i
woman.
“He acted like an animal,” said another Kaua’i woman. “Even though
there is no death penalty, he should get the stiffest sentence possible for
what he did to her.”
Some women chose to make a public display of their ire
by organizing a protest in front of the Lihu’e Courthouse this morning prior to
Gregory Aguiar’s preliminary hearing.
Aguiar, 49, has been charged with
attempted murder for allegedly pouring lighter fluid on his wife and setting
her afire in the presence of their three-year-old granddaughter.
Miu Lan
Esposo-Aguiar, 39, is in the intensive care unit of Straub Hospital with second
and third-degree burns over 76 percent of her body.
The group staged the
protest not so much to condemn Aguiar but to raise awareness about the need for
a shelter for abused women, children and men, said organizer Joan
Aanavi.
“The main point we want to make is that there is no shelter for
women and children until they get beaten up,” she said.
She said she was
beaten by a Kaua’i man and that she could have avoided that situation if she
had a place to go before it happened.
“He tried to kill me. I had 10
stitches in the head,” Aanavi said. “One time is more than enough. I am not
protesting just for myself. I am protesting for all women who have been
abused.”
Nancy Peterson, program director for the YWCA Family Violence
Shelter in Lihu’e, said the facility will accept women and their children who
are at risk of being abused and those who have been abused.
Peterson said
her primary concern is to show support for Mrs. Aguiar.
“I think we need to
focus our energy on how we can support this woman and the rest of the women in
our community (who have been abused),” Peterson said.
A Princeville woman
said the attack against Mrs. Aguiar should serve as an eye-opener. “I think
that most women don’t think that their mates could possibly do something like
this to them,” she said. “If it happened to her, it could happen to anyone. It
is spooky.”
Mrs. Aguiar’s three-year-old granddaughter told police
investigators she saw the couple arguing and that her grandfather poured liquid
from a container on her grandmother’s head and set her on fire with a
lighter.
Kaua’i Police Lt. Bill Ching dismissed news accounts that Aguiar
had poured flammable liquid in a balloon, tossed it on his wife and ignited the
fluid after the balloon broke on her.
Kaua’i police investigators found no
signs of any balloon remnants and confiscated a lighter, a few matches and a
container of lighter fluid.
Neighbors said they heard Mrs. Aguiar scream
about 11 a.m., saw her run out of her home on 4554 Pualei Street in a ball of
fire, run across the street to another home where she hosed herself off with
water.
Aguiar surrendered to police about two miles from his home and
more than two hours later at the Kauai Coffee Co. office in Numila, where he is
an employee. A co-worker convinced Aguiar to surrender, according to
Ching.
Yesterday, Ching declined to comment on reports Aguiar confessed to
committing the crime. “I can’t say yes or no,” he said.
Ching said the
victim and the suspect had argued over Mrs. Aguiar seeing another man and that
the suspect was upset about Mrs. Aguiar spending too much time at her job at
Home Infusion in Lihu’e.
The company provides care for individual who are
homebound and require medical care.
In addition to the attempted murder
charge, Aguiar has been charged with reckless endangering in the first
degree.
He has been held on $100,000 bail in the Kaua’i Community
Correctional Center.
