By Mark Matsunaga and Ken Kobayashi
Advertiser Staff Writers

The federal jury in Dennis "Bumpy" Kanahele's trial was leaning toward convicting him on two felony charges, one of the jurors said yesterday.

But another said the split was unclear because the panel didn't know the results of their many votes during the deliberations that spanned 2 1/2 days.

Matthew Allard, 19, of Makiki, a supermarket clerk, said the panel was in favor of acquitting Kanahele and Gordon Kaaihue on a misdemeanor count of interfering with a police officer, but was deadlocked over convicting Kanahele on his other two counts.

Allard said only two of three jurors were in favor of acquitting Kanahele. "They just didn't think the prosecution proved its case," he said.

Juror Kevin "Chubs" Watanabe said he was not aware of how the votes stood, but "it wasn't just one or two" people holding out against a majority.

Watanabe, co-owner of an auto-detailing business, said there was sometimes heated disagreement among the jurors on the second and third counts.

At one point, he said, discussion in the jury room got so heated that "they had to tell us shut up."

Allard said further deliberations would not have helped reach a unanimous decision on those two counts.

Watanabe, who's part-Hawaiian, and Allard, who's not, said ethnicity played no part in the jury's deliberations. Nor did Hawaiian sovereignty issues, added Watanabe.

"Whenever sovereignty came up, it was shut down immediately," he said.

Most of the jurors declined to talk with reporters after Gillmor thanked them, declared a mistrial without explanation and sent them home.

"We're drained, completely drained. I guess we can say that," one woman juror said.

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