WAILUKU — A Maui man on trial for a fatal machete attack at a shopping center believed the victim was one of Satan’s minions, according to his testimony.
Kumulipo Sylva, 24, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the March 2018 death of 35-year-old Eduardo Alejandro Cerezo, The Maui News reported Tuesday.
Kyle Keoho and Cerezo were drinking alcohol in a public bathroom at the Queen Kaahumanu Center on Maui when Sylva entered and struck Cerezo in the neck with the machete, Keoho testified last week.
Cerezo died instantly, authorities said.
Sylva was suffering from a mental disorder that caused him to experience delusions, Deputy Public Defender Ben Lowenthal has said.
Sylva was “in a fog” for days and cannot remember much about the attack because his mental health medication had been stolen. He was homeless and had received psychiatric medication the night before at a hospital emergency room, Sylva testified Monday.
“The person you swung at in the bathroom, what was that person,” Lowenthal asked Sylva during testimony.
“One of Satan’s minions,” Sylva said. “I told him, ‘Tell Satan, Kumulipo sent you,’ and I swung.”
Sylva challenged Cerezo to a fight in a nearby parking structure earlier in the afternoon and the men heard Sylva talking about demons while riding a bus to the shopping center, Keoho testified.
Sylva said that after the attack he told Keoho, “That was a demon, dude,” before leaving the building.
“If he was allowed to think like most people think and not know that that was a demonic being that I had just dispatched, he would have been freaking out twice as much,” Sylva said. “So I had to tell him.”
