By Wendy Osher

Special to the Star-Advertiser

Kimberlyn Scott, the mother of Carly “Charli” Scott, testified today in the murder trial of Steven Capobianco. The trial is now in it’s 16th day after a break on Monday due to illness.

Capobianco is accused of killing his ex-girlsfriend Charli Scott, who was 27-years-old and five months pregnant with their child when she went missing in February of 2014. Capobianco pleaded not guilty to the charges in July of 2014.

During testimony, Kimberlyn Scott described the events leading up to her daughter’s disappearance, relationship with the defendant, as well as the tension that loomed as she questioned Capobianco about the last time her daughter was seen alive.

During earlier testimony, the jury heard audio from an interview of Capobianco in which he told police that on the evening of Feb. 9, 2014, he asked Charli to drive him to a spot 3.2 miles past Keʻanae to retrieve his vehicle, which he said had stalled and died the day before.

Scott testified that she tried to get in contact with her daughter more than 20 times on Monday, Feb. 10, 2014, before she called police to file a missing person report.

“I was frightened because it was extremely abnormal for her not to answer. She just always answered,” said Scott.

“Depending on what time of day she was going to work, she would swing by the house and drop off her laundry,” said Scott, who noted that Charli did not stop by as expected at around 9 a.m.

That evening after 8 p.m., Scott said she tried to contact her daughter again.

After picking up another daughter, Phaedra Wais, in Haʻikū on the way to Charli’s home in Makawao, the two removed the louvers from the front living room window enough for Wais to squeeze in and unlock the front door, Scott testified.

She said that nothing seemed out of place except Charli’s dog Zoey had urinated and defecated within the house. The dog’s water and food dish were also empty. “For her to have messed in the house meant that she had been in the house too long,” said Scott, who described the dog as, “extremely well trained.”

After securing the home, she said she decided to call police.

“I was pretty terrified, actually, because the whole time we had been calling and no one had heard from her. I was getting more and more afraid that something had happened,” Scott testified.

At the time, she used her Life360 phone app to show police Charli’s last ‘ping’ spot. “I could see a bridge. I could see trees. I could see the road,” said Scott. She testified that the ‘ping’ was “just off the Hāna Highway,” on the ocean side of the highway at a spot near Honomanū.

While talking with police, Scott testified that an officer discouraged her from going out to search the ‘ping’ spot. “I agreed with what the officer said, which is that I was just probably overreacting and I shouldn’t put myself and my daughter (Phaedra) at risk in the middle of the night.”

At some point, Scott said she went back to Charli’s house later that night to get the dog.

The next day she said she and Wais took a route on the Hāna Highway towards where the ‘ping’ was and said they stopped 25-30 times along the way between Haʻikū and Hāna, “looking for signs in the shrubbery or any sign that would show a car had gone off the road,” including indents in the guard railing.

They continued on to Hāna to check in and see if police in East Maui had been searching and she was instructed to contact Detective Wendell Loo. After speaking with the detective, Scott said she turned the car around and began the search backwards, this time headed towards her home in Haʻikū.

On the drive back, she passed her daughter Brooke Scott’s vehicle. “We signaled to each other. Phaedra got out of my car and got into the car with Brooke. I continued home,” Kimberlyn Scott testified.

When her daughter’s Brooke and Phaedra returned home, the defendant, Capobianco, had followed them and arrived at the house as well, according to Kimberlyn Scott’s testimony.

“At that point we had known that he had been with Charli the night before,” said Scott, who acknowledged that she had requested his presence to ask him about where they had been, what time they returned and if there was a timeline that he could provide.

“I pushed a yellow legal pad with a pen toward him and asked him to write down the answers,” said Scott, who characterized her request as, “less of a question and more of a demand.”

It took Capobianco 10 seconds to write down his simplified responses, according to Kimberlyn Scott. “Basically what I took from what he had written was, ” At 8:30 (p.m.) she picked me up; at 9:30 (p.m.) we were at my vehicle; at 10:30 (p.m.) I was home,” Kimberlyn Scott said.

When she asked for more information including if he was in front of her, or if she was in front of him on the return home, Kimberlyn Scott said, “He said she was following. I asked how he knew and he said, ‘Because you’re the one that gave the skull headlamp to her. No one else has one.’”

Scott characterized Capobianco’s tone as being “out of context for being in a room full of people that were afraid for someone.” She said, “He was being a smart ass.”

When she pushed the legal pad toward him again and asked him to write down the specific name of the street where Capobianco last saw Charli’s headlights Scott said, “He didn’t verbally refuse; he just didn’t pick it (the pen) up. He did not write that down. He then told Brooke (Charli’s older sister) that it was closer to Twin Falls that he last saw her (Charli’s) headlights.”

According to Scott, Capobianco also told her to check out Mile Marker 7.5.

During cross examination, defense attorney Jon Apo questioned Scott about a meeting and conversation she had with Capobianco on Feb. 12, 2014.

She testified that the two had arranged to meet at Hanzawa’s sometime after 8 p.m. that day so she could get the dog back after it had gone with Capobianco the day before.

Apo read from a Feb. 22, 2014 transcript of Scott’s interview with police in which she recounted to police what had transpired.

At one point Capobianco was quoted as saying, “Yeah, I’m going. This is getting pinned on me.” Scott was also quoted as telling Capobianco, “I just looked at him and said: Do not show up at any searches. I don’t want to see you.”

Apo asked Scott if she had at that point “pinned him for it,” but the questioning was stopped after objections.