Mistrial declared in case of Kaena Point murder
By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer
A mistrial was declared this morning in the murder case against Patrick Deguair Jr.
A Circuit Court jury deliberated over six days before declaring it could not reach a unanimous verdict on charges that Deguair murdered Jermaine Duckworth “execution style” in March at Kaena Point on Oahu’s Leeward Coast.
The jury also could not agree on kidnapping and three firearms charges against Deguair but acquitted him of two drug offenses.
Circuit Judge Michael Town set Feb. 22 as a new trial date.
Defense attorney Neal Kugiya said he was “pleased” at the acquittal verdict on the drug charges and said his client will be acquitted of all charges in the re-trial.
Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bell said he “respects the service and the time” the jurors put into the case.
“We will go forward in the subsequent re-trial,” Bell said.
The trial lasted eight days and the jury began deliberating late in the afternoon of Nov. 3.
Nov. 6 was a “furlough Friday” in state courts so jurors did not meet that day or on Veterans Day last week.
At one point jurors asked for a transcript of testimony delivered by the key prosecution witness, David Teo, who said he saw Deguair shoot Duckworth in the back of the head and push the body over a coastal cliff.
Deguair testified in his own defense, naming Teo as the killer.
Prosecutors and police alleged that Duckworth was murdered because Deguair believed Duckworth was a police informant.
Deguair, 32, of Ewa Beach, is also awaiting trial on robbery, kidnapping and weapons charges related to the November 2007 armed invasion of a Waianae home and the April 2008 armed robbery of an Aiea pool hall. Duckworth was a co-defendant with Deguair in the Nov. 7 case.
The drug charges against Deguair in the murder case were filed after police found drugs and paraphernalia in a hotel room when he was arrested in April.
But co-defendant Aryss Kamai testified in the trial that the drugs belonged to him.