Jury finds Brown guilty of Monsalve’s murder
Daughter: ‘It was eight years of fighting’ after mother’s disappearance
Bernard Brown listens at the moment the jury’s guilty verdict is read by Judge Peter Cahill Thursday afternoon. Brown briefly hung his head afterward, the only emotion he showed. After deliberating for about 10 hours, the jury found Brown guilty of the murder of his ex-girlfriend Moreira “Mo” Monsalve. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
Alexis Felicilda, daughter of Moreira “Mo” Monsalve, is hugged by longtime friend Tabbetha Kauhaahaa outside the courtroom after the guilty verdict was announced Thursday afternoon. Monsalve has been missing since 2014. “It was eight years of fighting,” Felicilda said after the verdict was read.
Bernard Brown is consoled by defense attorney Randall Hironaka after Thursday’s guilty verdict.
Alexis Felicilda processes Thursday’s guilty verdict outside the courtroom. Her mother, Moreira “Mo” Monsalve, has been missing since 2014.
Bernard Brown listens at the moment the jury’s guilty verdict is read by Judge Peter Cahill Thursday afternoon. Brown briefly hung his head afterward, the only emotion he showed. After deliberating for about 10 hours, the jury found Brown guilty of the murder of his ex-girlfriend Moreira “Mo” Monsalve. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
Alexis Felicilda, daughter of Moreira “Mo” Monsalve, is hugged by longtime friend Tabbetha Kauhaahaa outside the courtroom after the guilty verdict was announced Thursday afternoon. Monsalve has been missing since 2014. “It was eight years of fighting,” Felicilda said after the verdict was read.
Bernard Brown is consoled by defense attorney Randall Hironaka after Thursday’s guilty verdict.
Alexis Felicilda processes Thursday’s guilty verdict outside the courtroom. Her mother, Moreira “Mo” Monsalve, has been missing since 2014.
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Eight years after Moreira "Mo" Monsalve was last seen at the Wailuku apartment of her ex-boyfriend Bernard Brown, he was found guilty of murdering her.
A 2nd Circuit Court jury returned the unanimous verdict Thursday afternoon, following a trial that began Aug. 1 and included about 35 witnesses and about 50 exhibits.
"This case was just all the little details all put together -- the electronic information, Brown's statements and his demeanor, various things he told various people and the observations from citizens who came forward and just had little pieces of information that helped us build the case," said Deputy Prosecutor J.W. Hupp.
He thanked Monsalve's family and friends who waited as police and prosecutors developed the case against Brown.
"It was amazing how many people we met that just loved her and thought she was the most wonderful person," Hupp said. "The jury saw that the only real decision was that he was guilty. We may not have found her, but the only explanation is that he killed her."
The 46-year-old mother of three was last seen the night of Jan. 12, 2014, at Brown's apartment at Iao Parkside. Brown told police and others that he was falling asleep when she left his apartment at about 10 or 10:30 that night and was supposed to be picked up by her son Tyson Felicilda.
Her son didn't pick her up, and the prosecution said activity on Monsalve's phone used Brown's IP address, putting her in his apartment throughout the night. The next afternoon, Brown dropped off her Buick at a mechanic shop in Wailuku.
Monsalve was reported missing by her daughter and co-workers Jan. 14, 2014, after she didn't respond to phone calls and text messages and hadn't shown up for work.
Her disappearance led to widespread community searches by volunteers as well as police searches with cadaver dogs.
After a man looking for recyclables found her pink Coach purse in a dumpster at Papohaku Park on the evening of Jan. 13, 2014, police searched the dumpster a few days later and found her cellphone in pieces at the bottom, as well as a stack of her paperwork and her identification to enter her workplace in Kihei.
Brown, 51, is facing a mandatory sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole for the second-degree murder conviction when he is sentenced Nov. 23.
"It's disappointing," his attorney, Randall Hironaka, said after the verdict. "Obviously, Bernard is devastated. We respect and appreciate that the jury spent a lot of time."
The jury deliberated for about 10 hours over two days, starting shortly before noon Wednesday and continuing Thursday. "They obviously carefully considered the evidence," Hironaka said.
He said the most disappointing part was based on questions in communications from the jury during deliberations.
"Not only could they not get answers to the questions, but the answers weren't in the evidence," Hironaka said. "Our feeling is that there's obviously reasonable doubt there."
When Judge Peter Cahill read the verdict Thursday afternoon, Monsalve's daughter, Alexis Felicilda, was among those in the courtroom gallery. While her best friend let out a "yip," Felicilda said she didn't see any reaction from Brown, who was wearing a face mask.
After flying 14 hours from Maryland, Felicilda said she was "really scared and nervous" while watching closing arguments in the case Wednesday.
"It was eight years of fighting," Felicilda said. "We got the guilty verdict, which means that I didn't waste the last eight years of my life."
She said justice for her mother wouldn't be complete until she is found.
"One of the hardest things in life is not knowing and not understanding what happened," Felicilda said. "Ultimate justice would be that I get to give her a funeral."
She thanked the community and police, including Detective Oran Satterfield, the lead investigator who kept a photo of Monsalve at his desk.
"He worked really, really hard," Felicilda said.
She also credited former Deputy Prosecutor Robert Rivera, who presented the case to Maui County grand juries that indicted Brown, and Hupp, who handled the prosecution at trial with Deputy Prosecutor Mike Kagami.
After being indicted on the murder charge in September 2019, Brown was brought back to Maui from Sacramento, Calif., where he had moved after Monsalve went missing.
"Thank you to everybody who worked really, really hard on this to make this happen," Felicilda said.
Monsalve's older sister Leslie Monsalve-Jones, speaking by phone Thursday from New Mexico, said, "I just heard that Moreira's getting justice."
"We're very happy with the verdict, but I would rather have Moreira," said Monsalve-Jones, who sat through much of the trial.
She said Monsalve was the youngest of four sisters.
Their father died in 2019, and Monsalve-Jones said she planned to share news of the verdict Thursday night with their mother, Helen Monsalve, who will soon turn 88 years old. "It's hard on her," she said.
Brown is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Maui Community Correctional Center.
* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.