A preliminary hearing in a grisly murder case got off to a rocky start Friday when the first two prosecution witnesses refused to testify.
A preliminary hearing in a grisly murder case got off to a rocky start Friday when the first two prosecution witnesses refused to testify.
On advice of their attorneys, Sharina Pavao and Christian Alameda both invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in the case of Eric Fontes Jr., accused of murdering of 59-year-old Barton Bumatay.
Police say Bumatay was shot twice in the head at his 33rd Avenue home in Hawaiian Paradise Park shortly after midnight New Year’s Day. His decomposing, decapitated and dismembered body was found Jan. 23 in two locations off Beach Road in the same Puna subdivision.
Pavao and Alameda refused to answer the first question from Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Hashizaki, which was the same for both witnesses: “I want to direct your attention to the date of Dec. 31, 2015; that would be New Year’s Eve. On that date, do you recall being at the residence of one Barton Bumatay?”
Hashizaki told Hilo District Judge Barbara Takase he had no further questions for either witness after they invoked their right against self-incrimination.
The state planned to call a third witness, Shannon Souza, but was unable to do so because he didn’t have legal representation in the case.
Takase said she’d appoint an attorney for Souza before the hearing resumes at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 26. Souza and five defense witnesses — Andrew Yamauchi, Crystalynn Fontes, Dennis Nabarro, John Mercado and Leilani Torres — were ordered by the judge to return then.
Torres, who is incarcerated, as are Nabarro, Mercado and Souza, shouted, “I love you, babe,” to Fontes as she was led out of the courtroom by sheriff’s deputies.
Court documents filed by police say Alameda told detectives he and Souza went to Bumatay’s home shortly after midnight New Year’s Day and saw Fontes there, holding a .22-caliber revolver, and Bumatay dead on the floor.
Alameda and Souza told detectives the 34-year-old Fontes forced them at gunpoint to help him dispose of Bumatay’s body, documents state.
Pavao, according to documents, told detectives Fontes took her on a ride to a remote area in Pepeekeo, where he bragged about shooting Bumatay and making Alameda and Souza chop up the body.
Hashizaki said after the hearing he was not surprised Pavao and Alameda pleaded the Fifth. Neither they nor Souza have been offered immunity in return for their testimony, he said.
“That is something our office is going to have to look at in terms of the risk and reward. We just need to be sure that they are not involved in any way in the homicide if we offer them any sort of immunity,” he said.
Asked how the refusal of Pavao and Alameda to testify affects the state’s case, Hashizaki replied, “It does affect our ability to proceed immediately. How it plays out for the future, it really depends on how we’re able to work with the attorneys for the three witnesses.”
Cody Frenz, Fontes’ court-appointed attorney, declined to comment afterward.
Fontes, who is charged with second-degree murder, second-degree theft, being a felon in possession of a firearm, two counts of first-degree terroristic threatening, and a single count of second-degree terroristic threatening, plus unrelated drug charges, remains in custody at Hawaii Community Correctional Center in lieu of $727,000 bail.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.