Documents Reveal New Details In Albatross Massacre
A defense attorney’s court filings include the identities of two people who were charged as juveniles in the slaughter.
New details about the investigation into the slaughter of 15 protected Laysan albatrosses at Kaena Point are contained in court documents filed by an attorney for one of the defendants.
The documents听include听the听 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s investigation report, as well as the identities of听two juvenile defendants in the case who were 17 at the time of the attack on the federally protected seabirds in December 2015.
In the documents, attorney Myles Breiner identifies Raymond Justice and Carter Mesker as co-defendants in the case. Justice and听Mesker were 17 years old when the seabirds were slaughtered in December 27, 2015.
As minors, Justice and Mesker have been dealt with in Family Court, where all proceedings, including names of defendants, are kept confidential.
Breiner is representing a third defendant, Christian Gutierrez, a Punahou School graduate who is currently enrolled as a sophomore at New York University鈥檚 Tisch School of the Arts.
Gutierrez is being tried as an adult because he was 18 at the time of the attack.听His trial is scheduled to begin in Circuit Court on Feb 27.
He is facing 19 criminal counts including theft, criminal property damage and 15 counts of animal cruelty, one for each of the albatrosses killed.
Attorney Todd Eddins apparently听represents Justice.听Eddins said Tuesday that 鈥淚 will not confirm or deny representation of any juvenile in confidential Family Court proceedings.鈥
But Eddins added, 鈥淚t is not much of a stretch to dub an attorney 鈥榚thically challenged鈥 who would publicly disclose confidential and sensitive information pertaining to Family Court juvenile proceedings.鈥
The defendants听allegedly went on a rampage, killing the sea birds with a machete, a baseball bat and a pellet gun and smashing their nests and eggs.
A foot was cut off one of the birds, the report stated.
One of the birds was found with a .177 caliber pellet from an air rifle in its听 head, and another died of blunt force trauma with one of its lower limbs removed, the report stated.
The seabirds were nesting in a protected wildlife sanctuary near where the youths had set up their campsite, said investigators who contributed to the report.
All of the defendants have past or present ties to Punahou School.
All of their names are in pre-trial motions Breiner filed to try to get the case against Gutierrez dismissed. The motions will be heard by Circuit Court Judge Jeannette Castagnetti听 at 2 p.m. Thursday.
In the documents, Breiner听claims the Honolulu prosecutor鈥檚 office has been unfairly inconsistent in the proceedings because Mesker was allowed to negotiate a pre-trial agreement early last year while Gutierrez听was indicted a year after the albatross incident.
Breiner said he was given听inadequate time to 鈥渋ndependently investigate the facts affecting and supporting his defense and negotiate a pre-indictment deal as Co-Defendant Carter Mesker was able to do.鈥
In court documents, Breiner also suggests that Gutierrez might have been charged with too many counts of animal cruelty since it is not clear how many birds were allegedly killed by Justice or by Mesker.
The prosecutor鈥檚 office is asking that Breiner鈥檚 motions be denied.
Chuck Parker, a spokesman for the prosecutor鈥檚 office, said Tuesday that the office erred in sending out the Fish and Wildlife’s investigation to Breiner without redacting the name of a minor witness.
鈥淲e have asked the defense to seal the document in question to prevent further dissemination of the information,” Parker said.
