'Oki had business problem with victim'

'Oki had business problem with victim'

JAKARTA (JP): A United States detective testifying in the
trial of an Indonesian charged with a Los Angeles triple murder
said yesterday one of the victims had a business problem with the
suspect.

Jacqueline Franco, 54, a deputy sheriff with the Los Angeles
Police Department (LAPD), said this was why the suspect, Harnoko
Dewantono, alias Oki, killed Suresh Mirchandani, an Indian
businessman.

Franco said Mirchandani did not plan to pay the US$75,000 he
owed Oki for buying his dry-cleaning business, she said.

Franco said she got the information after interrogating
Mirchandani's bother-in-law, Jay Abdul Faraj.

Jay had said Mirchandani wanted to leave Los Angeles to work
for an airline in Kuwait.

She said Jay was at a meeting between Oki, his lawyer and
Mirchandani on Aug. 18, 1991.

At the meeting Jay saw Oki was enraged because Mirchandani did
not want to pay his debt, Franco said.

Franco said she was in charge of investigating Mirchandani's
disappearance. He was reported missing in August 1991.

She said Mirchandani was supposed to go to a family party on
Aug. 18, 1991, but never turned up.

Oki, 32, is on trial for murdering Mirchandani, his female
friend Gina Sutan Aswar and his younger brother Tri Harto
Darmawan, alias Eri, between August 1991 and November 1992.

Franco said Jay did not say Oki had threatened Mirchandani.

Yesterday, Oki denied he was angry at Mirchandani.

Franco said Jay told her Mirchandani feared Oki because Oki
knew "persons who might harm him."

She also said Oki telephoned Jay saying Jay did not need to
fear for Mirchandani's safety.

Franco said she found a cheque for US$3,187 which Mirchandani
had written for Oki, drawn from a Los Angeles bank.

But Jay had denied Mirchandani signed it, she said

Franco said investigations by LAPD forensic print specialist
Karen Chiarodit revealed the handwriting was Oki's.

Oki denied this in court repeating the denial he made to
Franco during an interrogation.

LAPD finger print specialist Daniel Woo had earlier testified
he found Oki's finger prints on the cheque.

The second and third witnesses were Marlyn Dawns and Charles
L. Claudell, two other LAPD finger print specialists.

They said they found Oki's fingerprints and those and his
domestic helper and driver, Mardi Hariyadi, on several items at
the L.A. warehouse where the three bodies hidden in wooden boxes
were found in August 1994.

Oki's fingerprints were found on the boxes and a cassette
player and Mardi's were found on the boxes, cups, bowls and
dishes.

Mardi said he handled the boxes but did not know what was in
them.

Presiding Judge I.G.K. Sukarata adjourned the trial until
Thursday to hear testimonies from Gilbert Aquillard, a L.A.
expert on fingerprint comparison. (07)