More than a decade after Taryn Christian was convicted of fatally stabbing another man during a confrontation in Kihei, the prosecution says new DNA evidence confirms he was the killer.
The DNA testing was sought by Christian as part of an appeal to federal court of his murder conviction, seeking to support his claim that another man was responsible for the stabbing.
Instead, reports by two experts who tested evidence in the case found Christian's DNA was present. The reports were filed in U.S. District Court in Honolulu in preparation for an evidentiary hearing Monday before Magistrate Judge Leslie Kobayashi. Attorneys will have the chance to cross-examine the experts and other witnesses at the hearing.
In a 1997 trial in 2nd Circuit Court, Christian was found guilty of second-degree murder of 23-year-old Kihei resident Vilmar Cabaccang. Cabaccang was stabbed numerous times with a double-bladed knife in the early-morning hours of July 14, 1995, after he and his girlfriend chased a man who broke into Cabaccang's customized Honda Civic on Kulanihakoi Street in Kihei.
According to testimony during his trial, Cabaccang tackled the other man and was stabbed in the chest, back and armpit. He died 14 hours later at Maui Memorial Medical Center.
Witnesses identified Christian, then a 19-year-old Kula resident, as the man they saw at the crime scene. The knife, a blood-covered jacket and a baseball cap recovered at the stabbing scene all were linked to Christian.
While Christian didn't testify during his trial, his attorney maintained Christian was innocent and argued that a second man - who was called to testify but claimed his Fifth Amendment right - was responsible for the killing. In May 1997, Christian was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
"Taryn Christian has noted that he was present at the crime scene, but that James Hina Burkhart was the person who fatally stabbed Vilmar Cabaccang," according to a statement filed in court last month by Christian's current attorney, Mark Barrett of Norman, Okla. "As the case progresses, additional evidence pointing toward Burkhart continues to be collected and more reasons develop to establish the unfairness of the proceedings against Christian."
Police initially sought Burkhart for questioning in the murder, but he was ruled out as a suspect after other witnesses placed him somewhere else at the time of the stabbing. Called as a witness at Christian's murder trial, Burkhart refused to testify.
No indication of Burkhart's DNA was found by the two experts who recently examined evidence in the case, according to their reports. A knife, screwdriver, Cabaccang's car keys, clothing, baseball cap and jacket were among items submitted for examination by the forensic scientists, who were asked to make comparisons with samples from Christian, as well as Cabaccang, his girlfriend Serena Seidel, and Burkhart.
In court filings, Maui County First Deputy Prosecutor Peter Hanano said that the DNA evidence implicates Christian and "exculpates" Burkhart.
Christian "has failed to demonstrate that he is actually innocent," Hanano wrote in opposing Christian's petition for relief from the court. "In fact . . . there is new credible and reliable DNA evidence that undoubtedly confirms (Christian) as being the killer."
No DNA evidence was presented at Christian's trial.
For the appeal to the federal court, the trial evidence was sent for DNA testing last year to two California laboratories, one selected by Christian and the other by the prosecutor's office.
Hanano said Christian's expert concluded that DNA consistent with Christian was found in bloodstains on a jacket found near the murder scene. The prosecution expert concluded that other bloodstains on the same jacket were consistent with Cabaccang.
Christian was determined to be a potential donor to DNA obtained from a knife sheath recovered at the scene, according to his expert.
In the testing of materials from the evidence, Hanano wrote, "Burkhart was consistently ruled out as being a potential donor to any of the DNA evidence recovered from the crime scene evidence."
Christian's appeal also alleges unfairness because a pair of bloody shorts worn by Seidel that night couldn't be found to be tested, despite his request to preserve evidence in 1999. Barrett's statement said a photo of the shorts shows red marks, apparently from someone wiping hands, and could have been made by Burkhart.
Hanano called the claim "unreasonable speculation."
He also described as "highly suspicious" a witness' recantation.
In a July 15 affidavit, Phillip Schmidt said he now had doubts about his identification of Christian as the man he saw walking away from the murder scene. Schmidt, who lived nearby and was awakened by the commotion, picked Christian's image out of a police photo lineup and testified at trial. But in the affidavit, Schmidt said that after an investigator showed him another photo lineup in June, "I am confident now that was the person I saw walking away" was Burkhart.
Another claim by Christian involves the quality of a tape-recording of a telephone call between him and his former girlfriend Lisa Kimmey. Police detectives had Kimmey make the telephone call and recorded it after she said he told her he was responsible for the stabbing.
Had the tape been properly enhanced before trial, it "would have clarified for the jury that there was an explicit denial," according to Barrett's statement. Because the tape wasn't enhanced, jurors couldn't clearly hear Christian say, "I wasn't the one who stabbed him," according to Barrett.
An audio engineer who examined the tape at the prosecution's request verified two statements of denial by Christian as well as "18 portions of the conversation in which (Christian) either admitted or insinuated responsibility for the murder of Vilmar Cabaccang."
Christian, now 32 years old, is incarcerated in a Mainland prison.
He had previously appealed his conviction to the Hawaii Supreme Court, which denied the petition in November 2004.
* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.
