CYRUS BELT - 2 yo (2008) - Honolulu HI

Cyrus Belt's father and aunt are suing the state,
Belt's mother and his accused killer, Matthew Higa, over the toddler's
death in 2008.
The 23-month-old toddler was thrown onto the H-1 freeway from a pedestrian overpass Jan. 17, 2008.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in state court on behalf of David Belt and his
sister Lisa Belt, holds Higa responsible for causing Cyrus' death by
throwing the toddler off the pedestrian bridge. The lawsuit also claims
negligence by the state Child Welfare Services Branch and that Cyrus'
mother, Nancy Chanco, allowed Higa access to Belt.
Higa, 25, is charged with second-degree murder. His trial is scheduled for this month.
In trial, Higa is expected to claim he is not guilty of murder, arguing
that the boy was dead before his plunge onto the freeway, according to
state court records.
The Honolulu medical examiner says Belt died from multiple blunt force injuries sustained in the fall.
Police said a truck also ran over the toddler on the freeway.

Higa's lawyer, Randy Oyama, says in court documents that the autopsy is wrong
because it bases its conclusion on an erroneous assumption: that Belt
was alive when he plunged onto the freeway.
Oyama says there is "evidence that can credibly establish that deceased was dead, or at least unconscious, prior to his fall."
He said the evidence is in eyewitness descriptions.
A witness who told police he saw Higa "toss the child by one arm over the
overpass" said he thought the child "was a toy doll," according to his
written statement. He said, "It looked like a doll spinning in a
cartwheel motion."
The passenger in the truck that struck Belt said in his written statement
he saw a small baby fall from the overpass. "The baby was wearing a
(diaper) and appeared to me to be dead. It was not moving as it fell."
Oyama said he will present medical testimony in trial that based on the above
descriptions, Belt was either dead or unconscious prior to the fall.
In response to inquires following the autopsy, the doctor who performed
the examination released a written statement that said the autopsy did
not show objective evidence to indicate that Belt was dead prior to
being thrown off the pedestrian overpass.

A prosecutor claims a Honolulu man was high on crystal meth when he
threw a 23-month-old boy to his death from a highway overpass.

City
Prosecutor Peter Carlisle said in his opening statement Monday in
Matthew Higa's murder trial that the boy, Cyrus Belt, landed on the H-1
freeway and was run over by a delivery truck in 2008.

A passing
motorist who stopped, nurse Mary Susan Arnold, testified she couldn't
do anything for Cyrus but hold his hand and say a prayer. She said his
hand was warm.

Defense attorney Randall Oyama plans to argue the boy was already dead when the 24-year-old Higa threw him from the overpass.

At 23 months old, Cyrus Belt lived in a world surrounded by illegal activity.Admissions
during the murder trial of Matthew Higa on Thursday revealed nearly all
of the adults around belt were using crystal methamphetamine the day he
was thrown off a freeway overpass.Matthew Higa's father took the witness stand in his son's murder trial.He confessed that he had smoked ice with Matthew in the past and that his son had begun hearing voices and seeing things."He would say that somebody was following him and shooting at him or something," said Shelton Higa, the defendant's father.On
that fateful day Shelton admitted he was in an illegal gambling house
downtown and saw Cyrus' mom Nancy Chanco and her boyfriend Shane
Mizusawa."That would be before 12:00 What happens when Shane
gets there? He went to Nancy and he started smoking. I saw them light
up the pipe," said Higa."And you we're using crystal
methamphetamine at this time, is that correct? Yes. Regularly, yes,"
said Nancy Chanco, Cyrus Belt's mother.Chanco testified she would get into physical fights with her father, and that Mizusawa would protect her son."He
would pick Cyrus up and take him away from the fighting. So he, he
would take Cyrus away, like outside and walk him, said Chanco.Outside and walking alone is exactly where a Honolulu Police officer found the 23-month-old toddler on the day he wound up dead.The boy was returned to Mizusawa."
I looked down in the direction of where the incident happened and I
seen Matthew Higa there. I went down there and I started confronting
him. I was swearing at him," said Shane Mizusawa.Not long after that incident the tot would be thrown onto the H-1 Freeway.Higa has been charged with murdering Cyrus, the defense believes the boy was already dead before he was thrown onto the freeway.Authorities
combed the area to try and figure who the boy was. While they did that
his mom was busy at the Ala Moana Sears store."It was probably to get money, how? Steal," said Chanco.It was never clear during the trial who was responsible for watching Cyrus that morning.Closing arguments will be made next Thursday.

On the morning before her 23-month-old son, Cyrus
Belt, plunged off a pedestrian overpass onto the H-1 freeway, the
toddler's mother said she went to gamble at an illegal game room
downtown and smoked methamphetamine there with her neighbor, the father
of the man charged with her son's murder.


Nancy Chanco dabbed her eye yesterday as she testified in the trial of
Matthew Higa. Higa is accused of causing the death of Chanco's son,
Cyrus Belt, by tossing him from a pedestrian overpass to the freeway
below.

Nancy Chanco said she even asked Shelton Higa to lend her some gambling money.
Matthew Higa, 25, Shelton Higa's son, is on trial in state court on
second-degree murder charges, accused of causing Belt's death on Jan.
17, 2008, by throwing the toddler off the overpass.
Chanco testified yesterday as a defense witness.
She said she left the Punchbowl-area apartment she shares with her son,
boyfriend and father at about 8 a.m. She said she left her son in her
father's care.
By 11 a.m., she said, she was at an appointment at Institute for Human
Services in Iwilei to apply for rental assistance. After the
appointment, Chanco said, she and her boyfriend, Shane Mizusawa, went
to Ala Moana "to get some money."
Higa's lawyer, Randy Oyama, asked her how she was going to get money.

Higa's father said one place he
got his drugs was from Cyrus' mother.


"Steal," Chanco said.
When Oyama asked her whether she was going to steal from stores or cars, she said, "Stores."
Witnesses saw Belt falling off the overpass onto the freeway at about 11:40 a.m.
Chanco said she did not learn about her son's death until she returned home in the evening.
Shelton Higa said he learned about the death when he returned home at about 1 p.m.
He said Mizusawa called him later and said Chanco wanted to talk to him.
He said he agreed to meet them at a Shell station in Kalihi, but they
did not show.

The next morning, Higa said Mizusawa called him and asked for money to pay for a hotel room.
Higa said he met Chanco and Mizusawa through gambling, and they helped him
get an apartment for him and his son in their building.
He said Mizusawa gave him rides, and he was with him when Mizusawa committed thefts and sold stolen merchandise.
Higa said he also smoked "ice" with Mizusawa and that he and his son even
bought drugs from him. He said he later stopped buying drugs from
Mizusawa because he was "ripping us off." He said he also confronted
Mizusawa and told him to stop selling drugs to his son.
"Sometimes giving him bunk or take his money and no give him nothing," Higa said.
Prosecutor Peter Carlisle and Oyama have completed presenting their cases in the
nonjury trial. They will deliver their closing arguments to state
Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario on Thursday.

Crystal methamphetamine references dominated the closing argument of
Prosecutor Peter Carlisle yesterday in the trial of accused child
killer Matthew Higa.
Murdered toddler Cyrus Belt "lived in a world of ice," Carlisle told Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario."It
is indisputable that he was surrounded by adults addicted and high on
ice. There is every reason to condemn their behavior and deplore their
supervision of a 23-month-old child," the prosecutor said.But
only one person, Matthew Higa, is responsible for throwing the boy to
his death from an H-1 Freeway overpass near Punchbowl on Jan. 17, 2008,
Carlisle said.Higa "killed that small child as a result of voluntary crystal methamphetamine intoxication," Carlisle argued.Defense
attorney Randall Oyama said Carlisle had not proved his case beyond a
reasonable doubt. Witness testimony and forensic evidence indicated
that the boy was dead or unconscious before Higa, 24, gained custody of
the child and hurled him 30 feet through the air and into the path of a
two-ton delivery truck, Oyama argued."Clearly there is doubt, judge, in this case, and we're asking that my client be acquitted," Oyama said.Carlisle called Oyama's argument "an imaginary scenario woven together by guesswork and speculation."Del Rosario, who presided over the non-jury trial, said he will deliver his verdict Feb. 11.Higa did not testify during the trial.Before hearing final arguments, Del Rosario questioned the defendant about his understanding of his constitutional rights.

Refuses to testify

"Do you want to testify in this case?" Del Rosario asked."No, sir," Higa quickly responded.Higa
wore a blue shirt decorated with pictures of beer bottles and cans,
blue pants and slippers. He was shackled at the ankles and watched by a
nearby deputy sheriff.Witnesses who saw Higa throw the baby off
the overpass followed him as he casually walked away from the scene and
pointed him out to police. Higa gave a statement to detectives that
Cyrus was alive, crying and moving before Higa threw him to his death.Outside court yesterday, Oyama said, "Matt actually, really doesn't have too much memory of that particular day."The
defense decided to keep him off the stand "because we believe that all
the facts necessary for our defense were already available on the
record," Oyama said.The defense lawyer said he thinks Higa is "hopeful that what he views the truth to be will come forward."Carlisle
told Rosario that Higa was "under the influence of, and intoxicated by,
crystal methamphetamine" when he intentionally threw the toddler "to
his death on the freeway below."Higa and his father, Shelton
Higa, lived in an upstairs apartment in the same 'Iolani Avenue
building where Cyrus lived with his mother and her boyfriend and her
father.Shelton Higa testified in the trial that he regularly smoked ice with his son and with Chanco and her boyfriend, Shane Mizusawa.Half an hour before Cyrus died, the boy was found sitting in the middle of 'Iolani Avenue by an off-duty police officer.Mizusawa retrieved the boy, explaining to officers that Cyrus had darted away when Mizusawa was unloading his car.Mizusawa
testified that Higa was standing nearby and that Mizusawa then berated
Higa for not taking any action when Cyrus was in the street.

Smoking ice

Chanco and Shelton Higa said they had left the apartment earlier to go to a
downtown gambling parlor, where they smoked ice together. Mizusawa
later joined them there and smoked ice with Chanco, Shelton Higa
testified.How Matthew Higa came to have custody of Cyrus before
throwing the boy off the overpass is a question that was not answered
in the trial."We can only speculate," Carlisle said yesterday.Ogawa indicated in his final argument that Mizusawa was responsible for Cyrus' death and then tried to blame it on Higa.Mizusawa is "a known felon who abuses drugs" and "he wants to assist the prosecutors in convicting my client," Oyama said."He has a consciousness of guilt," said the defense lawyer.Del Rosario asked the parties to return to court in a week to hear his verdict.

HONOLULU — A Honolulu man has
been convicted in the death of a 23-month-old boy who was tossed from a
freeway overpass two years ago.
Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario on Thursday found 24-year-old Matthew Higa guilty of second-degree murder.
Cyrus Belt was thrown from a 30-foot high Hawaii freeway overpass and run
over by a delivery truck in January 2008. Prosecutors say Higa was high
on crystal methamphetamine when he threw the toddler.
Defense attorney Randall Oyama has argued that the boy was already dead when he
was thrown. Oyama has suggested a boyfriend of the boy's mother, Nancy
Chanco, was responsible for the death.
Higa did not testify during the trial.

The 2008 murder of toddler Cyrus Belt is a crime that should "live in
infamy for decades" and killer Matthew Higa should die in prison for
committing it, Honolulu Prosecutor Peter Carlisle said in court
yesterday.
Higa, 24, was high on crystal methamphetamine when he threw the
23-month-old boy to his death from a freeway overpass Jan. 17, 2008."By
leaving him in prison until his death, he will be an ongoing example of
methamphetamine use, abuse, addiction and intoxication," Carlisle said.Circuit
Judge Dexter Del Rosario sentenced Higa to life in prison with the
possibility of parole.He must serve at least 15 years before
being considered for parole.Carlisle said he will petition the
Hawai'i Paroling Authority to set Higa's minimum term of imprisonment at
200 years."There's a lot of things that are sad about this young
man. But the nature of his crime and the nature of the circumstances
that he lived in clearly and unequivocally indicate that he will always
be a risk to public safety," Carlisle said.The murder trial
underscored the widespread use of crystal meth — commonly known as "ice"
— in Island society. Witness after witness, including Higa's father and
Cyrus' mother, testified that they smoked the drug with each other and
with the killer in the hours and days before the boy was murdered.Cyrus
lived with his mother, grandfather and his mother's boyfriend in the
same Punchbowl-area apartment building where Higa lived with his father.Higa's
father, Shelton, was in court yesterday but left without comment after
the sentence was pronounced.Del Rosario found Higa guilty of
second-degree murder Feb. 11 at the close of a nonjury trial.The
defendant did not testify during the trial and was silent again
yesterday.His lawyer, Randall Oyama, told Del Rosario he had
instructed Higa not to address the court because of a planned appeal.Oyama
repeated arguments made during the trial that witness testimony and
forensic evidence indicated the boy was dead or unconscious before he
was tossed from the Miller Street overpass just blocks from the state
Capitol and City Hall.Oyama withdrew as Higa's lawyer at the
close of yesterday's hearing because Higa and his father no longer have
the money to pay him.But Oyama said he will assist the public
defender's office in appealing the conviction."I have a hard time
understanding why there's no doubt in this case about my client's
guilt," Oyama said outside court."All the evidence seems to
suggest that death may have occurred pre-fall."Higa, who has been
held at O'ahu Community Correctional Center, "is nervous" about being
transferred to Hālawa Correctional Facility, Oyama said."He's
heard a lot of stories about it there. He's very worried," the lawyer
said.No members of the dead child's family testified at
yesterday's sentencing hearing."It doesn't surprise me that
they're not here," Carlisle said."In terms of the surrounding
members of the family of this child, for all intents and purposes they
were always more with crystal meth than they were with the kid," said
the prosecutor.