The fate of a Kurtistown man accused of robbing a high-stakes dice game in Puna almost two years ago is in the hands of the jury.
Both the prosecution and defense delivered closing arguments Tuesday in the trial of John Krause, who’s charged with robbery, burglary and terroristic threatening for his alleged role in the gunpoint robbery of craps and card games at a Hawaiian Paradise Park home in the early morning hours of May 28, 2013.
Deputy Prosecutor Jack Matsukawa played a 911 call placed by one of the victims, Brandon Parks. Parks told the police dispatcher he was hiding in bushes after armed intruders interrupted “a little card game” at the home of Marlon Eugenio on 9th Avenue off Makuu Drive.
Matsukawa told jurors the robbery could have been “the perfect crime.”
“You have more money than probably the Bank of Hawaii tellers,” he said. “Lance Yamada (one of the gamblers, had) $50,000. There was probably $100,000 there. There’s no security guard. There’s no surveillance. And you know what? They’re the perfect victims. If they got busted gambling for big bucks … they probably wouldn’t have reported it.”
According to Matsukawa, the robbery failed because “the high rollers went out the window and Brandon Parks was concerned about the people inside the house.”
Matsukawa said Krause, who visited Eugenio’s home earlier in the evening with one of the gamblers, Jarret Kaneshiro — but left prior to the home invasion by six masked, armed robbers — was identified by voice by Eugenio and by sight by Parks as Krause allegedly left in Kaneshiro’s pickup truck.
Matsukawa said the robbers “forced their way” into the home and “everybody panicked except who? Jarret Kaneshiro. He was part of the plan.”
Kanani Laubach, Krause’s court-appointed attorney, told jurors the state has “no physical evidence to link John Krause as the robber.”
“First, no fingerprints,” she said. “None were found at Eugenio’s residence or in Mr. Kaneshiro’s truck. … There was no DNA recovered or matched to Mr. Krause. None was recovered at Mr. Eugenio’s house, and none was recovered from Jarret Kaneshiro’s truck …. There was no paintball masks recovered. None was recovered at Marlon Eugenio’s home, none in Jarret Kaneshiro’s truck, and none recovered from Mr. Krause when he was arrested. … There was no search warrant done of (Krause’s) house.
“If they suspected him to not only have a firearm, a shotgun or rifle, all of the paintball masks, everything, the gloves, there was no search. … Nothing.”
The jury started deliberating at about 4 p.m. and were sent home by Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara at 4:30 p.m. Deliberations are expected to resume Monday.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.