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Murder Trial Jury Visits Case Locations

Jurors Travel To Where Victims Was Last Seen

POSTED: 8:34 pm HST March 14, 2008

After two weeks of dramatic testimony, a jury on Friday in the trial of accused killer Kirk Lankford toured the scene where a woman from Japan may have spent her final moments.

The tour began in Pupukea and ended at Kahana Bay.

Jurors got a chance to use their own observation to piece together the movements of victim and defendant almost 11 months ago.

The court caravan climbed Pupukea Road, retracing Masumi Watanabe's daily routine. At one stop, where she began her final walk, a neighbor was stunned to see Lankford back in the neighborhood.

Lankford was unshackled and escorted by several plain-clothed sheriffs. When Judge Karl Sakamoto convened official sessions, Lankford appeared to awkwardly help out.

Prosecutors directed the tour to places where they said Watanabe was abducted and taken to a vacant lot above the ocean and a then-vacant house on the beach. The defense objected that witness testimony and/or satellite data from Lankford's truck were being manipulated to deceive the jury.

The final stop was at Kahana Bay. Lankford revisited the spot he was allegedly seen digging a hole the night Watanabe disappeared.

In a bizarre complication, two women digging in the area said they were looking for Watanabe's body. The defense and prosecutor hastily tidied up to keep jurors from seeing freshly-turned dirt.

Trial will return to a traditional courtroom on Monday.

Prosecutors will wrap up and the defense begins its case.
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