Accused killer Ethan "Malu" Motta is scheduled to take the witness stand in his own defense today after the prosecution rested its case yesterday in the racketeering trial of Motta and Rodney Joseph Jr.

Motta and Joseph are accused of fatally shooting two men and critically injuring a third in January 2004 in a dispute over "protection" payments from illegal gambling rooms on O'ahu.

Both defendants pleaded guilty in the case last year but withdrew those pleas after U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway refused to approve a plea deal that called for the men to serve 27 1/2 years in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Brady closed his case shortly after a survivor of the Pali shooting, Tino Sao, was cross-examined by Motta's lawyer, Charles Carnesi of New York.

Sao repeated earlier testimony that Motta, 39, shot him in the face when the two men met at the Pali golf course parking lot in the early afternoon of Jan. 7, 2004.

The defendants are charged with murdering two other men, Romilius Corpuz Jr. and Lepo Utu Taliese.

The murder charges as well as extortion and robbery counts are part of a pattern of violent conduct the defendants followed to control their positions in a racketeering enterprise that centered on illegal gambling, according to the government.

If Motta does testify as expected, the government will be able to use a tape recording secretly made by an FBI informant when he met with Motta more than four years ago on the Big Island.

Mollway earlier ruled that the tape, made by Joseph's cousin, Jonnaven Monalim, could not be introduced as evidence in the trial unless Motta testified.

Mollway also said yesterday that portions of the tape that she previously ordered stricken from the record must be made public if the tape is introduced at trial.

Mollway said in January that the stricken portions of the tape "all concern a single person and possible wrongdoing by this person."

Mollway did not name the individual but said the allegations made about him, mostly by the informant, are extremely serious but unproven.

"Few things could be more serious," the judge said.