New trial to start for Samoans accused of beating Kona security guard

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A new trial has started for two defendants convicted of the attempted murder of a security guard at the Kona Seaside Hotel on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Hawaii newspapers are reporting that the state’s Intermediate Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for two of three people convicted of brutally beating John Kanui in 2018.

The new trial began yesterday before Kona Circuit Court Judge Robert D.S. Kim.

A three-judge panel handed down its opinion in September 2022, ruling the Third Circuit Court abused discretion in admitting and presenting to the jury video of Kanui receiving treatment at a rehabilitation hospital in Colorado three months after the Sept. 17, 2018, incident at the hotel.

Following five days of trial in June 2019 Wesley Samoa and Natisha Tautalatasi were each convicted of attempted second-degree murder and Lama Lauvao of the lesser-included offense of first-degree assault. Samoa and Tautalatasi were sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, while Lauvao was ordered to serve 10 years behind bars on Sept. 13, 2019.

The now-overturned convictions stem from an incident that occurred early Sept. 17, 2018, when Samoa, Tautalatasi and Lauvao got into an altercation with Kanui while in the parking lot of the big island hotel.

Samoa and Tutalatasi were indicted again in March on charges of second-degree murder.

Lauvau was not named in the new indictment and was previously sentenced to 10 years for his participation in the offense.

Kanui, who suffered a cervical spine fracture, remained paralyzed in a care facility on the mainland until his death in September 2020.