On Independence Day, as I basked in celebration with my children, I wondered what adversities lay ahead that could jeopardize their valued freedom.
I pray that they do not meet the same fate as Shaun Rodrigues. Rodrigues was convicted of the Manoa home invasion robbery of Dawn and Diane Sugihara in June of 2000. He was recently sentenced to a minimum 12-year prison term.
The heinous nature of the crime was compounded by a lingering anxiety that permeated for weeks, throughout most households on Oahu.
Consequently, the urgency to solve this case and to quickly quell the community’s fear may have led to Mr. Rodrigues’ doubt ridden conviction.
Besides the lack of any physical evidence implicating him, and the conflicting testimony of the victims’ description of their assailant, many confounding questions remain. The most prominent one simply is, “why would he do it”?
At 20 years old, when this happened, Rodrigues was basically what some would call, a “model citizen.” After high school, he attended a two-year college and received an associate’s degree in electronics. He was working full time, striving for an eventual career in that field.
By enlisting in the National Guard he was fulfilling his duty and obligation to his country. An equally challenging obligation was accepted a few years ago with the birth of his son.
Does this sound like the same person who held a woman at gunpoint and threatened to cut her finger off if she didn’t remove her wedding ring? Why would such a responsible, hard working kid, who comes from a good home, and has no prior criminal record, do something so reprehensible?
If he is the culprit, then we’re to believe that, after twice working in the Sugihara’s home, he went back again two weeks later; to rob the very occupants who, by then, could almost certainly and distinctly remember him.
More incredulous is that he would do this without any attempt to conceal his identity, nor bother to wear gloves; yet inexplicably none of his fingerprints were ever found there.
Despite his carelessness, both women initially told police they did not think they could identify the intruder. Diane Sugihara attributed that to having removed her contacts moments before the robber entered her room.
She still somehow managed to pick Rodrigues out of a series of photos that were part of, at the very least, a dubious procedure used by police to identify criminal suspects. Was Diane Sugihara’s vision ever properly checked?
In general, a prescription for nearsightedness above 400 per eye would render a person’s face, only a few feet away, indistinguishable. The importance of this cannot be overstated because Rodrigues was convicted solely on the apparent “eyewitness” accounts provided by both women.
Could these women have gotten the events and faces mixed up due to the traumatic and frenzied nature of their ordeal? Is it possible that they mistakenly associated Rodrigues with being the robber instead of the cordial stranger who came to work in their home a few weeks earlier?
Astonishingly, even though he had worked there on two successive weekends, and by then, was affably being called by his first name, both women had to be told that this was the same guy they just picked out of the photo lineup.
Although these and other discrepancies would not ultimately vindicate Mr. Rodrigues, they just add to the overflowing reservoir of reasonable doubt, which, in this case, seems sadly overlooked.
For example, what happened to all of the items Rodrigues risked twelve years of his life to steal? None of the stolen property, including the wedding ring, was found when police searched his home, nor has anyone ever claimed that he offered any of it for sale. Did he just throw everything away that he risked so much to take?
Rodrigues and his mom both passed polygraph tests, anchoring his alibi, that at the time of the incident, he was asleep on a futon in the family’s living room. He slept there, in full view of other family members, because he had considerately given up his air-conditioned bedroom to his sister, who has asthma.
Most unsettling is a fingerprint found on Diane Sugihara’s jewelry box that did not match Rodrigues’. If this fingerprint does not belong to anyone living in the home, and police don’t know whose it is, then how did it get there?
One would expect to find foreign fingerprints throughout the house, left by workers or guests, but who had access to something as personal as a jewelry box except, maybe, the true robber.
If these are not compelling enough reasons to exonerate him, Rodrigues should at least be given a new trial, hopefully in front of a jury the next time.
This brazen crime was more likely committed by either a hardcore, career criminal with a five page rap sheet, or an out of control addict in desperate need of drugs. Both are clearly not characteristics of the accused, who, today is living in a prison cell with many of these same violent people.
In Hawaii, most of us try to do the right thing and not turn our backs to unjust situations. Shaun Rodrigues is drowning in a sea of injustice.
His family is anxiously waiting on the trepid shore, pleading for someone to save him. We can end their heartbreaking dilemma and rescue him by petitioning the courts for a new trial or asking the governor to commute his sentence.
Gregory K. Hino is a resident of Hawaii. He invites members of the public to get involved with this case by calling attorney William Harrison at 523-7041.
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