Memories of Kailua bludgeoning death still vivid
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By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Staff Writer
On the day she was bludgeoned to death a year ago today, Janel Tupuola was supposed to switch cars with a niece in hopes of avoiding a former boyfriend she said had been stalking her.
The 29-year-old mother of five was killed before the swap could be made, and the thought haunts her niece, Diamond Badajos.
"She and I were going to switch cars on the 16th," said Badajos, a University of Hawai'i student. "Then I found out she passed away. I felt super guilty. Like even when I look at my car sometimes, I feel really bad."
Tupuola's accused killer, Alapeti Siuanu Tunoa Jr., 31, is scheduled to stand trial in March before Circuit Court Judge Randal Lee.
Tunoa is charged with murder, terroristic threatening, assault on a man who tried to help Tupuola and three firearms charges, said Jim Fulton, with the Honolulu prosecutor's office.
Jason Burks, Tunoa's public defender, would not comment on the case.
Badajos said family members were upset when the trial was delayed from September and will be in court when the case begins.
On Jan. 16, 2008, police say Tunoa repeatedly crashed his SUV into Tupuola's vehicle until it was disabled, then dragged her from her car and began to beat her with the butt of a shotgun. As horrified residents looked on, the beating continued until Tupuola's screams ended and she lay motionless.
The killing contributed to what has become a disturbing trend over the past decade: Hawai'i consistently tops the national average in per-capita domestic-violence murders.
A year later, the killing still haunts the residents who saw it, and Tupuola's five children are being raised by relatives and family friends, in two separate homes.
Until recently, the children were growing up in three different homes, including that of Badajos and her mother, Gail Badajos, Tupuola's sister. Tupuola's oldest child, 14-year-old Keali'i, recently joined the Badajos family where his 2-year-old brother Junior and 3-year-old sister Trulyn live. Two other boys — Malama, 10, and Angel, 7 — live with a family friend who had been the boys' sitter and with whom they wanted to stay, Badajos said.
"It's hard to think about them growing up separately and seeing pictures of them and we're missing in action," Diamond Badajos said. "But they're doing good and we're getting along."
Tunoa is the father of at least one of Tupuola's children, Truelyn.
None of the children's fathers is involved with them now, and Badajos thinks that might be good. Whether there will be contact later will be up to the children, she said.
A main concern is how the children treat one other as they grow up and learn more about their mother's death.
"We don't want to have the other kids telling Truelyn that 'your dad killed my mom,' " Badajos said. "It's something we'll have to come to terms with when they're older."
The killing occurred near Maluniu Avenue at Kawainui Street in Kailua.
The quiet neighborhood is reached by two-lane roads with no sidewalks. The beach is just two blocks away. Well-kept yards surround older homes with mature trees and bushes.
Neighbors said about 30 people witnessed the beating, but no one there wanted to talk about it this week. One woman said she gets nightmares when she thinks about it and a man wondered what the killer's family was doing to rectify the situation.
Tupuola's family is anxious for the case to go to trial.
"(Tunoa) was saying it was an accident, that he didn't mean to do it and that the defense needed more time to build up their case," Badajos said. "We don't want it to be where the defense is trying to find every little thing wrong with my auntie to maybe say É it's all her fault."
Fulton, with the prosecutor's office, said murder investigations usually take more than a year to go to trial.
"We understand the frustration of the family," Fulton said, adding that the defense asked for the delay. "It was granted over the state's objection."
In the meantime, the family is adjusting.
