By JOHN BURNETT By JOHN BURNETT ADVERTISING Tribune-Herald staff writer A former mortician accused of a near-fatal hammer attack on a downtown Hilo coin dealer said the victim tried to swindle him in a deal for some rare Hawaiian coins,
By JOHN BURNETT
Tribune-Herald staff writer
A former mortician accused of a near-fatal hammer attack on a downtown Hilo coin dealer said the victim tried to swindle him in a deal for some rare Hawaiian coins, groped his privates and attempted to perform a sex act on him, and that the hammer was used in self-defense.
Robert Diego testified Tuesday that on the morning of June 13, 2011, Donald Nigro picked him up at the Hilo Shopping Center so Nigro could pay Diego the coins, which Diego said he had lent to Nigro a few weeks earlier for a pre-transaction appraisal. He said he believed that Nigro was driving him to his store, Antiques & Coins on Kilauea Avenue and that Nigro was going to give him a $34,000 cashier’s check and another $1,000 in cash for the coins.
“When we were near Cafe 100, he told me he was changing the deal. … He said he had a check for $18,000 instead of $34,000 and he was gonna give me the remaining $1,000 in cash and some jewelry,” Diego said during his attempted murder trial.
“… What did you say?” asked Diego’s attorney, William Heflin.
“He told me if I didn’t take the deal, he was gonna call (Honolulu attorney) Michael Green,” Diego said. “He said he knows I have a judgment with Michael Green and he can call Michael Green. If Michael Green takes the coins, I wouldn’t have nothing.”
Green was the attorney for more than 100 plaintiffs who sued Diego, his former wife, a daughter and the family-run funeral home Memorial Mortuary in 2004 after Diego served two months in jail after pleading no contest to stealing from pre-need funeral plans. The Diegos never responded to the lawsuit. In 2008, a Honolulu judge ordered that each plaintiff be reimbursed $10,000 for the lost funeral plans, and assessed $2.7 million against both Robert and Momi Diego and daughter Bobbi Jean in punitive damages, for a total sum of $9 million. That judgment has never been collected.
“I thought I’d try to convince him when we went to his shop that he could buy half the coins for $18,000. He could buy the other half later,” Diego testified. “But we never went to his shop. … We ended up going to his apartment.” He said that Nigro explained that there would be more privacy at the apartment.
Diego said that Nigro had taken a phone call after getting out of the car and before they entered the apartment. He said that once they were inside, Nigro closed the door and continued to talk on the phone “not for long, maybe 20 seconds, 30 seconds.” He said that Nigro then turned towards him, dropped the phone and “grabbed my crotch.”
“I said, ‘What the F you doing?’” Diego said. Diego said he tried to move away but Nigro moved closer. Diego said he responded by trying to poke Nigro’s eye, but missed and poked his cheek instead.
“And that’s when he punched me,” Diego testified, adding that Nigro hit him in the chest. “… Soon as he punched me, I got real scared. First thing came to my mind that he was either goin’ sexually assault me or hurt me.”
Diego said that Nigro grabbed his Diego’s shirt and told him he wanted to perform a sex act on him. He said that Nigro then knelt in front of him, and he started to slap Nigro, but that Nigro held on to his shirt with one hand and his crotch with the other. Diego said a green shopping bag he had slung over his left shoulder started to slip down his arm, “and that’s when I remembered I had the hammer” in the bag.
“I grabbed the hammer and when he was down, I hit him on the back of the head maybe three or four times, or maybe on the side of the head, I don’t remember,” Diego said.
“So you did beat him,” Heflin said.
“I did beat him,” Diego admitted.
“And why did you hit him?”
“Because I was protecting myself. He was trying to molest me,” Diego said, and added that during the beating, Nigro stood up and Diego continued to hit Nigro with the hammer.
“Why did you continue hitting him?” Heflin asked.
“Because I thought he was goin’ still attack me,” Diego replied.
“… And while this was going on, were you able to get away from him?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because he was still holding my shirt and the bottom of my pants. I was just in shock; I didn’t know what to do.”
Nigro has testified that the attack was unprovoked and no sexual advances were made.
The trial continues today in Hilo Circuit Court.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
