HILO — A Hilo man serving a life sentence without parole for a violent underworld clash on Oahu over control of illegal gambling that left two men dead of gunshot wounds and another man critically injured has taken to social media in an attempt to gain his freedom via a pardon from President Barack Obama.
As of midday Saturday, 777 people had signed an online petition at Change.org titled “Clemency Consideration for Malu Motta.” The petition, which was posted Sept. 22, is designed to be shared on Facebook.
Ethan Keliihoomalu “Malu” Motta, 47, is incarcerated at the high-security U.S. Penitentiary Lee in Pennington Gap, Virginia. He was convicted in 2009 on two counts of committing murder in support of criminal racketeering, which carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole, after a monthlong jury trial in U.S. District Court in Honolulu.
He and two other men, Rodney Joseph Jr. and Kevin “Pancho” Gonsalves, shot and killed Lepo Utu Taliese, 44, and Romilius Corpus Jr., 40, during a midday meeting Jan. 7, 2004, between rival underworld factions in the parking lot of the Pali Golf Course. Motta also shot 47-year-old Tinoimalu Sao in the head with a silenced .22-caliber handgun.
Sao survived and testified against Motta and Joseph. Taliese, as he lay mortally wounded on the golf course, also said Motta and Joseph had shot him.
Joseph also received a life sentence, while Gonsalves was sentenced to 27 1/2 years.
Kwai-Chang Publico, a Hilo entertainment promoter and owner of Fearless Hawaiian Enterprises, was one who signed the petition. Publico, who wrote Motta “does more good than bad,” said Motta was a friend but he “didn’t know that Malu” described in media accounts as a statewide crime boss and murderer.
“He was close with everybody, everybody,” Publico said Friday. “He’s always done a lot of good and helped a lot of people. I used to think of him as Robin Hood back in the day. We’ve had very parallel lives. … We worked in the Naniloa, we did promotions, we had a store in the (Prince Kuhio) Plaza. We had the parallels that way, but I don’t know him in the other world.”
According to the March 11, 2009, issue of the Honolulu Advertiser, Motta took the witness stand and disputed prosecutors’ description of him as a gangster and murderer who told an FBI informant in October 2004 he had a state judge “in his pocket.” The informant, Jonnaven Monalim, testified Motta also told him he had a friend who might one day be governor and pardon him if he were convicted in state court — an apparent reference to Billy Kenoi, a college friend of Motta’s who would be elected mayor in November 2008, and who spoke briefly at a legal fundraiser for Motta in Hilo in 2004.
Kenoi, whose felony theft trial is scheduled to start today, told the Advertiser in May 2008 “everybody knows everybody” on the Big Island.
“We live in a small town and when allegations surface, you don’t suddenly act like you don’t know the person,” he was quoted as saying.
The feds assumed jurisdiction over the cases of Motta, Joseph and Gonsalves after they were already in state court.
Motta admitted on the stand he shot Sao and Taliese, saying he feared for his life. He described himself as a college-educated entrepreneur, former student-body president at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and family man who worked with underprivileged children.
A message on the petition attributed to Motta’s “family, friends and loved ones” said Motta “acknowledges his past mistakes and has made positive changes in his life” and seeks to “move forward by using his abilities and talents to make positive changes in our Hawaiian community.”
Supporters of Motta left dozens of messages on the petition, all urging he be given a second chance. Most were from the Big Island, but many were from Oahu, the mainland, even overseas.
One signer, Nathaniel Davis of Honolulu, said Motta “taught me how to be a man” and has “done a lot for he’s community in Hilo.” He described Motta as “a pillar of our community.”
Another, Drazen Padovan of Rijeka, Croatia, a former UH-Hilo basketball player who graduated in 2000, recalled Motta as “a good guy … around campus” who “always helped me and was always a good sport.”
“Many years after I left … I could not believe what happened,” Padovan wrote.
A Sept. 28 message from Motta said he was “overwhelmed … to see the names of those who signed the petition and shared comments, especially those I haven’t heard from in years.”
“I’m just grateful and extremely blessed to have your unconditional support during these tough times,” he wrote.
In addition, Motta filed an appeal in June in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A previous appeal was denied in 2013.
Publico said he thinks Motta’s online petition may be “his last Hail Mary.”
“If he can get social media support, it might work,” he said.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.