By JOHN BURNETT
By JOHN BURNETT
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Homicide victim Lloyd Rubio was apparently stabbed in his bed and a kitchen knife was the a murder weapon, according to court documents filed by police.
The documents state that when officers arrived at Rubio’s home on Jan. 7 after receiving a 5:19 a.m. call to dispatch, Fire Rescue personnel were already at the scene and attending to Rubio, who “sustained a single stab wound to his left lower back and that a knife was still observed to be in his body.”
Rubio, a 38-year-old general contractor and owner of Big Island Construction, was taken by ambulance to Hilo Medical Center, where he died at 7:11 a.m.
Police said an autopsy found that the stab wound punctured the aorta, the largest artery in the body.
Rubio’s 37-year-old live-in girlfriend, Cherie Moskwa, was arrested and booked on suspicion of second-degree murder, but she was released pending further investigation without being charged. Police say Moskwa made the 911 call to report the stabbing.
Police Lt. Greg Esteban of the Hilo Criminal Investigations Section said Wednesday that Moskwa is still a suspect, but detectives “haven’t ruled out other possibilities.”
The documents state that Rubio and Moskwa lived together in the Kaumana Drive home for four years and have two children together.
Moskwa told police that she was awakened by Rubio yelling “He got me, he got me,” according to the documents. Moskwa reportedly told officers that she saw blood on Rubio’s body, then got up, gathered her 3-month-old child who was sleeping in the bedroom with them, then checked on her two other children who were in separate bedrooms.
Moskwa said she saw Rubio walk from the bedroom to the kitchen, where he collapsed. She told officers she then saw the knife handle protruding from Rubio’s left side and called 911, according to the documents.
The documents state that Moskwa told officers that the knife handle “resembled one of their kitchen knives” and noted that two kitchen drawers had been opened. She reportedly told police she didn’t see or hear anyone suspicious inside the home and couldn’t identify any signs of forced entry into the house.
A patrol officer told detectives that he saw a large amount of blood on a bed in the southwest bedroom of the house, and noticed a trail of blood on the floor from the bedroom into a hallway and “ending in an area near the kitchen where a large pool of blood” was seen, according to the documents. That area is where Rubio is reported to have collapsed.
Police also checked both the interior and exterior of the home and could not find any signs of forced entry, the documents state.
The documents state that police recovered a kitchen knife with “a silver colored blade with a dark brown handle, 13 inches in overall length and approximate 8 inch blade.”
Rubio’s mother, Karen Rubio, reportedly told police that she had received a call from Moskwa sometime sometime between 5:10 a.m. and 5:20 a.m. on Jan. 7. The documents didn’t contain what Moskwa allegedly told Karen Rubio, but the victim’s mother reportedly told police that she believes Moskwa called her own mother before speaking to her.
Police executed a search warrant on Moskwa’s iPhone. According to documents, the phone’s screen displayed numerous outgoing calls to “Mama” and “Papa,” as well as one incoming call each from “Mama” and “Papa” on Jan. 7.
Email John Burnett at
jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.