A University of Hawaii graduate student testified this week that a masked man broke into her rented Manoa studio in 2022, restrained her wrists with zip ties, held a knife to her throat and sexually assaulted her before fleeing with her wallet. Denise Hung's account opened the trial of 24-year-old Xavier Swofford, a Manoa man now facing kidnapping, burglary, attempted first-degree sexual assault and other charges tied to the attack.
Hung testified Wednesday in the First Circuit courtroom of Judge Kevin Souza that she arrived home at about 9:40 p.m. after a 20-minute walk from the UH Institute for Astronomy on Woodlawn Avenue to her studio on Woolsey Place, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. She had left the door to her unit open to a common area she shared with another unit, and a masked man slipped inside. He restrained her wrists with zip ties, grabbed her from behind and held a knife to her throat, the newspaper reported.
Hung testified the attacker told her to put her hands behind her and repeated, “good girl. good girl.” as he touched her abdomen, breasts and genitalia and told her he wanted to have intercourse with her. According to the Star-Advertiser's account, she broke free of the zip ties and grabbed the knife, at one point pointing it back at him. He noted her Ohio State ID before eventually telling her, “you win.” and, “I'm not interested in your money. Or you can blow me.” before putting his clothes back on, taking her wallet and leaving.
Prosecutors Trace a Path From the Observatory to Her Door
Deputy Prosecutor Ayla Weiss told jurors that surveillance video will show Hung was followed home by a man who had entered the driveway the night before the attack, per the Star-Advertiser's reporting. Weiss said that man was later identified as Swofford. Investigator Stephanie Virardi walked the route between the UH Institute for Astronomy and Hung's home four times as part of the investigation, according to the newspaper.
Police recovered crime-scene evidence and obtained a search warrant as the investigation unfolded, the Star-Advertiser reported. A doctor who examined Hung found recent ligature marks on her wrists and red fingernail scratches on her arms. Hung called police after the attack and later told investigators she did not feel safe returning home, instead staying in a hotel.
Surveillance Footage and DNA at the Center of the Case
Investigators said video surveillance from a home at 3005 Kalawao St. showed a male whose face and side profile were later used for identification. According to the Star-Advertiser, a woman in UH faculty housing areas recognized Swofford as the son of her neighbors, and police expanded their search into those faculty housing areas as a result. Hung later identified Swofford by his long, black, frizzy hair tied in a ponytail, first picking him out of a masked photo lineup when he was 20 years old, and separately identifying him directly, the newspaper reported.
Police also took DNA samples from Swofford. Weiss told jurors that his DNA profile was linked to genetic material recovered from the knife handle and the zip-tie bands used in the attack, according to the Star-Advertiser's account of the prosecution's opening statement.
Defense Says Video Shows a Different Man
Defense attorney Edward Aquino pushed back hard on the identification, arguing that the man captured on neighborhood surveillance was clearly not Swofford and that Hung's varying descriptions over time did not match his client, the Star-Advertiser reported. Aquino also discounted the state's DNA evidence, according to the newspaper's account of his opening statement, though he acknowledged that prosecutors will offer that DNA evidence at trial.
Aquino said Swofford was housesitting with his cats on the night of the attack. He told jurors Swofford's parents were in Kaneohe that night, in the process of moving to a home there, while Swofford himself shared a UH faculty housing unit in Manoa at 3030 Lowery Ave. with his parents at the time, per the Star-Advertiser's reporting.
An Arrest, an Indictment and What's at Stake
Honolulu Police arrested Swofford on Kahuhipa Street in Kaneohe on August 3, 2022, after linking him to neighborhood surveillance footage near the victim's home, with his bail initially set at $750,000, according to a report from Hawaii News Now. Swofford was subsequently indicted by an Oahu grand jury, a procedure permitted under Hawaii law for bringing major felony cases before First Circuit judges, per Justia Law.
The stakes in Judge Souza's courtroom are considerable. Kidnapping and attempted first-degree sexual assault are both Class A felonies under Hawaii law, carrying indeterminate sentences of up to 20 years in prison, according to legal summaries from FindLaw and RAINN. Hawaii law also explicitly bars probation for anyone convicted of a Class A felony, meaning a conviction on the top counts would require a mandatory state prison sentence, according to a legal explainer from Criminal Defense Lawyer. The burglary charge, meanwhile, is a Class B felony under state law punishable by up to 10 years in prison and fines as high as $25,000, since multi-unit residential structures like Hung's shared studio qualify as dwellings under the statute.
A Broader Question About Forensic Evidence
The fight over DNA reliability in Swofford's trial echoes a broader reckoning in Hawaii courts. In July, the Hawaii Supreme Court overturned a 1990 sexual assault conviction in *State v. Granillo* after ruling that invalidated forensic hair and fiber testimony had violated the defendant's right to a fair trial, according to Courthouse News. That precedent underscores why both prosecutors and Swofford's defense are contesting the forensic evidence, and the identification testimony surrounding it, so aggressively in this case.
Swofford was arrested four years before the trial began this week, and he now faces two counts of attempted first-degree sexual assault, two counts of third-degree sexual assault, kidnapping and burglary for entering the home, according to the Star-Advertiser's reporting on the charges laid out in court. The trial is ongoing, with the case ultimately turning on whether jurors believe the identification and DNA evidence prosecutors say ties Swofford to the knife and zip ties recovered from the scene, against the defense's contention that the surveillance footage points to someone else entirely.
