LIHU‘E — A 21-year-old visitor from Canada yesterday on the witness stand alleged that a man she knew only as “James” threatened to kill her, made her strip, and held a knife to her throat during a two-hour ordeal last week.
A preliminary hearing for James J. Mundon II, 49, of Kapa‘a, was held yesterday in District Court in Lihu‘e. He faces criminal charges related to the alleged incident that include 23 counts of third-degree sexual assault, and one count each of kidnapping, first-degree terroristic threatening, second-degree assault, and attempted sexual assault.
During her 90-minute testimony, the witness claimed that Mundon had kept her in the cab of his truck in the early morning hours of February 5 near the Radisson Kauai Beach Resort in Nukoli‘i, forced her to take of her clothes, and continually tried to fondle her.
When she tried to run away, he chased her down on the beach, and when she screamed, he punched her in the ribs and pushed his fingers down her throat, she testified.
In the courtroom, deputy county prosecuting attorney Russell Goo asked her to point out her assailant and she pointed to Mundon. The visitor broke into tears when questioned about the identification by Mundon’s lawyer, county defense attorney James T. Itamura.
The victim said met Mundon on her second night of a Kaua‘i vacation when he offered to help her with a discount rate at a hotel.
Her alleged attacker came up to her when she was sitting on a picnic bench near the Mo‘ikeha Canal in Kapa‘a near the Kapa‘a Public Library, Kaua‘i Police Department Det. Marvin Rivera testified.
She was waiting for a friend who went to check on a hotel room at the Kaua‘i International Hostel, when Mundon got out of a white truck and began to look in the canal with a flashlight, she claimed.
She asked him if he was looking for fish, and the two started talking at around 11 p.m., she testified. “I was just being friendly,” she told the court.
When her friend returned, he and Mundon talked while she went to sleep on a picnic table, the victim said.
Mundon offered to let her rest in the cab of his pick-up truck, she said, and she accepted. She woke up and found Mundon had driven the truck away; her friend was nowhere to be found. Mundon, the woman testified, said they were on the way to meet him at a hotel.
According to Rivera’s testimony, Mundon stopped the truck near the old Marine camp, in the vicinity of the Radisson hotel at Nukoli‘i.
“I was waiting for a really long time” for her friend to show up, and after some conversation fell asleep, she said.
When she woke up, she alleged, Mundon was touching her, but he stopped and apologized profusely when she complained.
She fell asleep again, and he again touched her, she alleged.
She later tried to leave the truck, but he grabbed her in a tight hug, she testified, and as she tried to wiggle out of the hold he put a knife to her neck.
“I was really scared,” she said. He said “he just wanted me to relax and have a good time,” she alleged, as she once again began sobbing on the stand.
For an indeterminate period, she told the court, she pleaded, struggled and tried to wiggle away, but her assailant kept trying to touch her.
“I was trying to stay as calm as possible. I (kept) telling him it was not appropriate and I wanted him to stop,” she said.
At some point he asked her to take her clothes off, she alleged, threatening her again, and she ended up wearing only panties, socks and sandals.
The two fought back and forth again, with Mundon making advances and she trying to wiggle away, she alleged.
“He was worried I’d go to the police,” she claimed, and “he said he should do what he wanted with me and then kill me.”
“I just wanted to get away, I was pretty hysterical,” she testified.
The victim said she tried to escape after Mundon let her leave the truck to relieve herself, and she ran towards the Radisson. But instead he tackled and punched her in the ribs and told her to shut up, as she continued to scream, she alleged.
She continued struggling with him, trying to take his knife away from him, she testified. Then she said she convinced Mundon that she would not run if she took her sandals off. She said she took them off then ran to the Radisson, where, clad only in panties and socks, she banged on a hotel-room lanai, woke the occupants up, and they called the police.
District Court Judge Trudy Senda found there was enough evidence for probable cause in 27 felony counts relating to the attack to hold Mundon over for trial. He is now in the Kauai Community Correctional Center in lieu of $170,000 bail.
His lawyer, Itamura, did not present much of a defense in the trial, as is customary in preliminary hearings. Attorneys usually present their cases at the jury trial, as much less evidence is needed to find probable cause.
Mundon was cleared of sexual assault charges at a jury trial held in May, 1986, where he was found not guilty of first-degree rape, sodomy, kidnapping, and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse, according to Ho‘ohiki, the online state Judiciary’s public access to court information.
Staff Writer Tom Finnegan may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or mailto:tfinnegan@pulitzer.net.
