'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)