By JOHN BURNETT
By JOHN BURNETT
Tribune-Herald staff writer
The daughter-in-law of a 56-year-old Panaewa woman shot four times on Mother’s Day by her ex-boyfriend said that her mother-in-law is recovering from her wounds.
Mary De Lima said Thursday outside Hilo Circuit Court that June Shirshac is “coming along slowly” and has been released from The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu to another facility, adding that the family doesn’t want to disclose Shirshac’s current location.
“She’s got a lot more recovery to do. But she’s coming along nicely. Her spirits are good; we try to keep her uplifted. She’s got a long road to recovery,” De Lima said. “We love her to death and our love will see her through, and she’ll heal up, I’m sure.”
Joseph Amormino Sr., 72, of Hawaiian Beaches, pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges stemming from the early evening shooting on May 13. Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura scheduled Amormino’s trial for 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 1 before Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara. Amormino, a retired adult corrections officer at Hawaii Community Correctional Center and Shirshac’s former boyfriend, is charged with first-degree attempted murder, two counts of second-degree attempted murder, burglary, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, three other firearms offenses and three counts of terroristic threatening.
Amormino was arrested shortly after the shooting at 1197 Auwae Road, where Shirshac lived in the same house with her 63-year-old ex-husband Francis Makaiwi, whom Amormino also allegedly tried to shoot. A Honolulu police sergeant who interviewed Shirshac at Queen’s testified during a preliminary hearing that, according to Shirshac, Amormino had told her she wasn’t going to die, but that she wouldn’t walk again. The shooting occurred two days after Shirshac had cut off the relationship with Amormino, Sgt. Nancy De Foster said.
De Lima, who is in a de facto common-law relationship with Shirshac’s son, Ben Makaiwi, said she’s confident Shirshac will walk again.
“What he (Amormino) thought he would accomplish, he didn’t,” De Lima said.
Hilo police Detective Wendall Carter testified at the preliminary hearing that Shirshac suffered gunshot wounds to her left shoulder, left knee, right thigh and right hand.
De Lima said that Shirshac, a greeter at the Hilo Walmart, is the grandmother of her 12-year-old son, Benjamin, whom she described as a “special needs child.”
“That’s his only grandmother, and he doesn’t have his grandmother now for companionship,” she said. “June is strong-willed for what she went through. … Ultimately, he (Amormino) ruined his life. That’s the outcome. He ruined his life out of his stupidity.”
De Lima said she would like Amormino “to be punished for what he did.”
“Who does he think he is to hurt June and take away my son’s grandmother?” she said. “He knows what he did was wrong. I don’t care what was the problem or whatever it was. … Nobody, nobody deserves to have done what he did to my mother-in-law. Nobody. And to my father-in-law and to my son.
“He hurt a lot of people, his family included. His children don’t deserve to go through what they’re going through. It’s not only what he did between him and June. It affected a whole lot of people. I want him to own up to what he did so the family can start healing. It’s a constant turmoil. It’s constantly on our mind and we want to put everything to rest, and it’s hard.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.