A man charged with killing a Maui police officer is asking a judge to toss out his recorded jailhouse phone calls, which prosecutors say shine a light on his alleged motive. The defense team argues the recordings were made without his permission and without a court order, setting up a high-stakes legal showdown in the coming weeks.
According to Maui News, prosecutors want Second Circuit Judge Peter Cahill to admit a series of jail calls they say connect a temporary restraining order to the Aug. 15 shooting that killed Officer Suzanne O. A hearing on the issue is set for Jan. 26. In court filings, prosecutors included recorded excerpts in which Clembert Kaneholani reportedly says, "Right after, brah, that was it, brah. I wanted to take lives already," and tells a caller he planned "to shoot these f— over there at the house and have a shootout at the house."
Defense attorney Zachary Raidmae is fighting to suppress those calls, arguing Kaneholani never consented to the recordings and that prosecutors did not have a warrant or court order to capture them. As Hawaii News Now reports, Raidmae also pressed the question of whether inmates receive a clear, Miranda-style warning that their calls can show up in court. A witness for the Department of Corrections phone vendor testified that the system "is not there yet" and that calls are not currently "tethered to a subpoena."
Prosecutors Present Evidence From the Field
Prosecutors have laid out witness testimony and crime scene details that they say line up with the timeline suggested by the jail calls and were enough to convince a judge there is probable cause for the case to proceed. Maui Now reported that officers found weapons and a backpack near a concrete pillar at the old Pāʻia Sugar Mill, and that witnesses and a forensic pathologist tied the fatal shot to the defendant.
Shooting, Charges, and the Defendant's History
The Aug. 15 incident at the Old Pāʻia Sugar Mill left Officer Suzanne O dead and Kaneholani facing multiple counts, including first-degree murder and several firearms offenses. Reporting in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser shows that Kaneholani has prior convictions dating back to at least 2005, including a 2015 case involving a stolen rifle.
What the Legal Fight Hinges On
At the heart of the dispute is whether Kaneholani had any reasonable expectation of privacy when he picked up the jail phone, and whether the recordings were obtained and noticed in a way that passes legal muster. Hawaii News Now notes that prosecutors say inmates are warned that calls may be monitored, while the defense argues that both the warning and the technical link between calls and subpoenas have serious gaps.
What’s Next
Judge Cahill is scheduled to hear arguments on the suppression motion in January, with the broader case already inching toward trial. Earlier filings outlined in Maui Now set a pretrial conference and indicated the case could return to circuit court in early February for jury selection, depending on how the calendar holds up.
Officer Remembered
Officer Suzanne O, a five-year veteran of the department who was honored for bravery during the 2023 wildfires, has remained at the center of the community’s grief as the legal process grinds forward. As Civil Beat reported, fellow officers and residents have continued to hold vigils and tributes in her memory while they wait to see how the case against Kaneholani plays out in court.
