Some current and former OCCC inmates are proving to be reluctant witnesses at the manslaughter trial.

The former security chief at Hawaiʻi’s largest jail has told Civil Beat he urged his superiors to transfer leaders of the prison gang Murder Inc. to a more secure state prison months before a gang-related killing in 2023, but the request was rejected.

Jose Rodriguez said in an interview that he also asked for a new video monitoring system to replace one that wasn’t working at Oʻahu Community Correctional Center, but didn’t get one.

That problem of failed cameras at OCCC was confirmed last week in testimony in the Oʻahu Circuit Court criminal trial for three men accused in the beating death of Chris Vaefaga at the jail July 6, 2023. There was no video evidence of the crime.

Vaefaga was

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