LIHU‘E — Jury selection started Monday in 5th Circuit Court for a felony firearms and drug case of a defendant who was recently convicted of murder. The defendant, Vicente Kote Kapika Hilario, 26, of Anahola, is charged with four counts
LIHU‘E — Jury selection started Monday in 5th Circuit Court for a felony firearms and drug case of a defendant who was recently convicted of murder.
The defendant, Vicente Kote Kapika Hilario, 26, of Anahola, is charged with four counts of firearms violations, second-degree promotion of a dangerous drug, and third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug.
The indictment was delivered by a grand jury in December, just a week before the start of his three-month murder trial.
The case resulted from an Aug. 24, 2010 arrest near a Wailua gas station. Hilario was pulled over by Kaua‘i police officers for his alleged role in the armed robbery of Aureo Moore two days prior in the parking lot of the Kapa‘a Safeway.
According to testimony from police officers during the murder trial, Hilario remained with the vehicle and was arrested with $1,472.03 in cash.
His passenger Kyle Akau, fled on foot and was apprehended with a backpack nearby containing a Jennings brand .22-caliber pistol with ammunition; a Colt .45 handgun with ammunition; 123 oxycodone pills, and items with Hilario’s name on them.
Hilario allegedly drove Akau to the Safeway robbery, but the case was dismissed in the preliminary hearing until it was re-charged in December 2012 with a grand jury indictment.
Hilario has since been convicted of first-degree murder by a 5th Circuit jury in March for the killing of Moore on Dec. 17, 2010. It was just 10 days before Moore was to testify against Akau in court.
Hilario is to be sentenced for the murder on June 13.
Akau, 26, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for violating probation in March. He was on probation for a conviction in the armed robbery of Moore at the Safeway parking lot Aug. 21, 2010.
The new trial of Mason Noah Saio, 20, of Kalaheo, was to be the priority jury trial this week.
His is the only one of four defendants that did not accept a plea deal in the January 2012 Koloa Chevron robbery and assault case.
Judge Kathleen Watanabe declared a mistrial when a 5th Circuit jury could not produce a verdict in the first trial in December.
County Deputy Prosecutor Melinda Mendes is the prosecutor in both the Hilario and Saio cases and an agreement to continue Saio’s trial extended the date to Aug. 26.
Hilario remains held at Kaua‘i County Correctional Center.
