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Jury convicts Kula man of attempted murder of woman

By Lila Fujimoto 5 min read

WAILUKU -- More than four years after a woman's throat was slit in a Lahaina apartment, a man was found guilty of attempted murder for the crime.

A 2nd Circuit Court jury returned the verdict convicting Calvin Borge after deliberating for about four and a half hours, beginning Thursday afternoon.

"We thank the jury for their service," Deputy Prosecutor Emlyn Higa said. "We're glad that the defendant was held accountable for his actions."

As the verdict was read Friday morning, Borge showed no reaction.

"I'm a little surprised," defense attorney Michael Green said. "But I respect their verdict."

Borge, 53, of Kula was found guilty of second-degree attempted murder of Deanna Bolen Nitta.

Witnesses said Borge approached Bolen Nitta from behind and cut her throat in the early-morning hours of Feb. 19, 2013, while she was at a gathering in the Piilani housing apartment at 1028 Wainee St.

Responding to a 2:18 a.m. emergency call, police officers found Bolen Nitta lying on the kitchen floor with her husband, Regan Nitta, kneeling over her and applying pressure to her neck with a towel.

She was transported by ambulance to Maui Memorial Medical Center, where she was treated for what a doctor called a "potentially fatal" laceration across her neck, as well as two lacerations to fingers on her left hand.

At the scene and a few hours after she was released from the hospital, Bolen Nitta told police officers she believed a woman had injured her. Borge's then-girlfriend, Kaleolani Keohuhu, the only other woman in the apartment, initially was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after confessing that she had cut Bolen Nitta.

But Nitta and Wade Waikiki, who were sitting with Bolen Nitta in the dining area of Waikiki's studio apartment, testified it was Borge who slit Bolen Nitta's throat.

"They're sitting at the small table. They're within a foot or two of Dee when it happened," Deputy Prosecutor Emlyn Higa said during his closing arguments to jurors Thursday. "They see the defendant coming out of the bathroom, coming behind Dee and slitting her throat.

"The reason Dee didn't die was because Wade and Regan intervened," Higa said.

Nitta testified that after seeing his wife bleeding, he got the knife away from Borge and stabbed him in the chest.

Keohuhu, who was arrested on a bench warrant issued when she didn't respond to a subpoena, testified she had gone outside to get a beer and wasn't in the apartment when Bolen Nitta was injured. She said she had lied and had confessed to the crime because she believed Borge was innocent.

While much of what Keohuhu told police wasn't true, Higa said she provided a motive for the crime. Keohuhu told detectives that she went into the bathroom with Borge and told him that Bolen Nitta was "disrespecting me." Keohuhu told detectives that Borge said, "Nobody treats my lady like that" before leaving the bathroom.

Defense attorney Michael Green, in his closing arguments, told jurors to "draw your own conclusions" about the police investigation in the case.

Police didn't do DNA testing or dust for fingerprints on the knife, Green said.

He said the lack of blood on the table was at odds with testimony that Bolen Nitta was sitting there when her throat was slit. "There is no way there's not going to be a drop of blood on the table if it happened the way Nitta and Waikiki said," Green said.

He said the blood shown in crime scene photos supported accounts by Bolen Nitta and Keohuhu that Bolen Nitta was standing at the kitchen sink when she was injured.

Higa said there was no blood on the sink or the floor in front of the sink, but there was blood on the floor near the dish rack where Bolen Nitta had been sitting before dropping to her knees onto the floor after being cut.

Borge chose not to testify during the trial.

Green told jurors there was reasonable doubt that Borge had cut the woman's neck.

Although witnesses swore to tell the truth, "every single person in that apartment lied about something," Green said.

"The word credibility is hard for me to get out of my mouth when I think about what the witnesses did in this courtroom," Green said.

In addition to drinking alcohol for several hours, witnesses said they had smoked crystal methamphetamine from a pipe that was passed around at one point.

Higa said the best evidence was the 911 call made by Nitta minutes after his wife's throat was cut.

"We can hear, besides Regan's anguish, he's not slurring his words, he's able to give the address," Higa said. "It doesn't sound like he's drugged out and disoriented. We can gauge how clear his mind is and how clear his speech is and how clear his responses are.

"You can hear the certainty and conviction in his voice as he accuses Borge of trying to kill his wife. It's the best evidence that Borge committed this crime."

Borge is being held in lieu of $2.4 million bail at the Maui Community Correctional Center.

He is facing life in prison with the possibility of parole when he is sentenced Jan. 4.

Judge Richard Bissen presided over the trial.

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.

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