Son of Honolulu police sergeant found guilty in fatal Round Top Drive shooting
May 15—1/1
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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Nainoa Damon is seen in court on May 1.
An Oahu Circuit Court jury found the 22-year-old son of a Honolulu police sergeant guilty as charged of second-degree murder in the 2022 Round Top Drive shooting death of 18-year-old Haaheo Kolona, first-degree robbery, first-degree terroristic threatening and gun charges.
Nainoa Damon, who was 19 at the time of the crimes, maintained his innocence, but his court-appointed attorney, Nelson Goo, told jurors that he turned himself in because his mother, a police officer, urged him to do so for his own safety.
Despite Goo's detailed arguments regarding the location of Damon's phone by cellphone towers on the preceding night and early morning hours of March 18, 2022, the differences were not enough to convince jurors that the defense's theory was correct.
Damon was accused of robbing the entire group of more than a dozen people at gunpoint, demanding they empty their pockets, and trying to pull a gold chain off the neck of Edward Aiden Curti.
Prosecutor Anna Ishikawa presented more than a dozen eyewitnesses who correctly identified Damon as the shooter.
Ishikawa said the information provided by FBI special agent Andrew Masters shows the phone could not have left the Tantalus area, and confined the defendant's cellphone to the Tantalus area during the time of the shooting.
She said the shooting occurred between 1:50 a.m. and 1:53 a.m. since the 911 call came in at 1:53 a.m.
The getaway car was found in Salt Lake the day after the shooting.
Damon will be sentenced Aug. 22 to life with the possibility of parole for the murder conviction.
"Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Anna Ishikawa presented evidence to the jury showing Damon shot Kolona when Kolona tried to stop Damon from robbing a group of teens at the lookout," First Deputy Prosecutor Tom Brady said in a written statement.
"We commend Honolulu police, the FBI and investigators here in the Prosecutor's Office for their work on the case."
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