Defendant Calvin Tagabuel, escorted by a Corrections officer, confers with his attorney Joey McDoulett and investigator Jeremy Wolfe at the local courthouse on Wednesday morning.
SUPERIOR Court Judge Joseph N. Camacho on Thursday approved two immunity motions for two witnesses in the second-degree murder trial of Calvin Tagabuel.
Assistant Attorney General Heather Barcinas requested the court to grant immunity to David Norita and Todson Sachuo to testify in the trial, saying that the immunity is only for Tagabuel’s case.
Tagabuel, 48, is accused of causing Lark Kasian’s death by delivering a single punch to Kasian’s face, rendering him unconscious and causing him to fall on the concrete floor, where he struck the back of his head.
In two separate requests, Barcinas said, “The witness shall be called upon to provide information necessary to protect public interest; the witness is likely to refuse to testify or provide information on the basis of privilege against self-incrimination.”
She said the Commonwealth and the witnesses — David Norita and Todson Sachuo — have executed separate immunity agreements, which were also signed by their court-appointed attorneys Mark Scoggins and Cong Nie.
Norita and Sachuo were the two persons who had a prior altercation with Kasian, 44, according to Department of Public Safety Detective Shannon Dela Cruz in her testimony last week.
On Thursday afternoon, Norita testified that he and Sachuo had a prior altercation with Kasian, whom they knew as “ASAP.”
Norita said “ASAP wanted the Ginebra bottle I was holding and he just grabbed it, so I pushed him away. When he tried to come again, Sachuo stepped in and ‘flattened’ him to the ground.”
But Norita said he did not see Sachuo punching “ASAP.”
In his testimony, Sachuo said Kasian was his uncle, and everyone called him “Art,” short for Arthur. He said does not know why he was being called “Lark.”
Sachuo said he and Kasian came to the laundry together and started drinking there.
As for the altercation that was caught on surveillance video, Sachuo said he was just trying to stop his uncle from attacking Norita.
Sachuo said, “Art was being aggressive to Norita, and I was just trying to block him from attacking, stopping him from making a problem.”
He said he neither punched nor kicked Kasian at any time during the altercation
The jury trial, which started on Feb. 11, will resume today, Friday, Feb. 21 at 9 a.m.
Tagabuel is represented by attorney Joey McDoulett while Chief Prosecutor Chester Hinds and Assistant Attorney General Heather Barcinas are prosecuting the case.
So far, a total of nine government witnesses have testified in the trial: George Babauta, DPS officer; Joseph Cing, EMT; Mary Louise Tanaka, DPS evidence custodian and crime scene technician; Shannon Dela Cruz, DPS detective; MD Jakir Hossain, Cool Laundry security guard; Krizel Macaspac and Marites Cadag, Cool Laundry cashiers; David Norita and Todson Sachuo.
