NO. 27660 – Thursday, September 4, 2008 – 10:00 a.m.

STATE OF HAWAI`I, Respondent/Plaintiff-Appellee, vs. ANTHONY KASSEBEER, JR., Petitioner/Defendant-Appellant.
(Sexual Assault in the First Degree)

Attorney(s) for Petitioner/Defendant-Appellant(s)
Joseph R. Mottl

Attorney(s) for Respondent/Plaintiff-Appellee(s)
Honorable Peter B. Carlisle, Prosecuting Attorney, and Stephen K. Tsushima, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, City & County of Honolulu

COURT: RTYM, CJ; SHL, PAN, SRA & JED, JJ.

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Brief description:

Following a jury trial in the circuit court of the first circuit, the defendant Anthony Kassebeer, Jr. was convicted of sexual assault in the first degree and kidnapping. Kassebeer appealed his conviction to the Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA), which filed a memorandum opinion on February 29, 2008 affirming the circuit court’s November 16, 2005 judgment of conviction and sentence. On May 29, 2008, Kassebeer filed a timely application for a writ of certiorari from the ICA’s March 28, 2008 judgment on appeal, which this court accepted on July 3, 2008.

Kassebeer raises the following arguments in his application: (1) he was denied his constitutional right to a fair trial through cumulative errors by the circuit court; (2) the circuit court erred in admitting Kassebeer’s handgun into evidence; (3) the circuit court erred in admitting into evidence testimony of a prior incident of physical abuse by Kassebeer against Kassebeer’s wife at the time of the incident; (4) the circuit court failed to deliver a unanimous verdict instruction as to the charge of kidnapping; (5) the circuit court erred in communicating its opinion that an offense had actually been committed; (6) the circuit court erred in preventing Kassebeer from effectively confronting and cross-examining witnesses called by the prosecution; and (7) the circuit court erred in refusing to grant Kassebeer’s motions for mistrial.