April 16, 2009
Trial opens in 1999 cold-case murder
By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer
The “cold case” murder trial of Darnell Griffin opened this morning in Circuit Court, with a prosecutor telling jurors, “The man who raped and murdered Evelyn Luka (in 1999) remained a mystery until 2007.”
That’s when DNA evidence recovered from Luka was matched to a DNA sample taken in 2004 from Griffin, now 50 years old, Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Takata said in his opening statement.
“For almost eight years, Evelyn’s rape and murder remained unsolved,” Takata said.
Griffin’s lawyer, Deputy Public Defender E. Edward Aquino, told jurors that Griffin and Luka “had consensual sex” two days before she was attacked and that Griffin was at home with his family the night of the assault.
Luka’s murder “is a mystery today that does not get solved with Darnell Griffin as the answer,” Aquino said.
Luka was found unconscious and in convulsions the morning of Sept. 6, 1999, lying on a median beside H-2 Freeway near Ka Uka Boulevard.
She had been raped and strangled and died the next month.
The night of the attack, witnesses said she was seen leaving a Kapiolani boulevard night club with a man who matched Griffin’s physical description in a car like the one Griffin owned at the time, according to Takata and court records.
What jurors won’t be told during the trial is that Griffin gave a DNA sample in 2004 because he was on parole for the 1980 murder of another young woman, Lynn Gheradi.
That information is being withheld as evidence in the Luka murder case because it has been ruled too prejudicial to Griffin’s rights to a fair trial.
Griffin, a computer technician, was paroled in 1996.
The DNA collected from him in 2004 wasn’t matched with evidence collected in the Luka case until 2007. He was then indicted on second-degree murder and first-degree sex assault charges.
Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090416/BREAKING01/90416060
This guy is scum. He use to teach at Heald College and got fired for harassing a female student. He told the student that he would fail her if she didn’t go out with him. He also made advancements on many female students. I hope he gets life in prison without any parole. Pure scum.
i think of you everyday i named my pup after you evelyn about 9years ago i will always love your friendship through the good and the great i.
loved you more than i showed there was alot of competition and you always wanted to not disrupt and make your family proud i always think of you and hurt all bymyself with thoughts of what if and why you
my love now is my dog evegirl and wailua evelyn if you could meet wailua you would know shes good for me but a part a big part still loves you and always will i want to see you i dont know where you rest i think millilani i have other friends there like phil algono and my boy ronald sanchez i remember your brother with all his intricate models in your house and how much of a risk it was sneaking me around you are the best girlfriend in my whole life and you are never out of my head and thoughts istill believe that you back me up and stand by myside i love you forever and ever and ever ill see you when my time is up maybe soon i just got shot at at the shpping center cops detectives and cameras i got lucky bullet holes all through my truck windows cab n tailgate thanks for looking after me that night it made the news i hope you read this and know that ill never ever get over this situation day by day ilove you and will always keep you in me in my heartind n soul love your man aaron