The man on trial for a March 2008 "execution-style" slaying was previously acquitted of attempted murder charges and was a suspect in a 2002 homicide, according to court records.

Patrick W. Deguair Jr., 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.

Deguair's murder trial began yesterday morning in Circuit Judge Michael Town's court with Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bell telling jurors that the defendant committed the "execution-style" slaying of Jermaine Duckworth in March 2008.

Deguair (pronounced de-GARE) "accused Duckworth of ratting or squealing to police" about the Waianae home invasion robbery the two men allegedly participated in.

Deguair, Duckworth and two other men allegedly disguised themselves as federal DEA agents and robbed residents of the home at gunpoint, stealing valuables including a safe and a purse.

Duckworth, 24, was arrested after police chased the getaway car to Oneula Beach Park at Ewa Beach. He was still wearing a DEA T-shirt when he was found hiding in the area. The other occupants of the car ran away.

Duckworth made two separate statements to police implicating Deguair in the home invasion case, according to Bell.

That was Deguair's motive for murdering Duckworth, Bell said.

On the evening of March 23, 2008, Deguair found Duckworth at a Waipahu home and bound and gagged him with duct tape before driving him to the end of the Leeward Coast at Kaena Point.

"With calm deliberation, the gunman put the pistol to the back of the head and depressed the trigger once," Bell said.

Deguair pushed Duckworth's body over the edge of a cliff, where it was found the next morning by tourists, the prosecutor said.

The murder weapon was a silenced .22-caliber pistol, according to the prosecutor.

"This case is about an execution," Bell said.

But defense attorney Neal Kugiya said the prosecution's main witness in the case, David Teo, is the killer.

"The most relevant evidence does not point to Patrick Deguair," Kugiya said in his opening statement.

Teo, 46, is a co-defendant with Deguair and Ju Young Woo in last year's armed robbery of Aiea Cue. Teo has pleaded guilty to robbery and gun charges in that case and is in protective custody awaiting sentencing. Deguair's trial in that case will be held in January.

Deguair, Teo and Woo were arrested after police formed a task force to investigate a surge in thefts from freestanding automated teller machines.

Three men with crowbars barged into the second-floor Aiea Cue pool hall, ordered four employees to lie face down and used a blowtorch to break into an ATM and change machine.

When police arrested Deguair at the Pagoda Hotel, they recovered an acetylene torch kit in the hotel room, according to Bell.

Kugiya said Deguair was teaching Teo welding and had purchased the torch kit secondhand for Teo.

Although Deguair has only a minor criminal conviction record, court records show he was charged with the attempted murder of two men by firing gunshots at them in 2002.

Another defendant was originally charged by police and prosecutors in the case but it was re-filed against Deguair after witnesses changed their testimony, according to court files. That led to lengthy delays in the prosecution , including use of a replacement prosecutor from Maui who had no involvement in the original case.

The charges against Deguair were dismissed after his lawyer argued that the delays had violated state speedy trial requirements.

Deguair had been held on $750,000 bail in the attempted murder case, in part because he was "also a suspect in a murder that occurred in December 2002," according to court records.

Deguair has four convictions for misdemeanor and petty misdemeanor offenses.

At the time of Duckworth's murder, Deguair was working as a security guard at the military's Hale Koa Hotel in Waikíkí.