Undone by DNA evidence but still protesting his innocence, convicted double murderer Darnell Griffin was sentenced this morning to consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

“I wasn’t the guy,” Griffin told relatives of Evelyn Luka, the woman he killed in 1999 while on parole for an earlier homicide. “I wasn’t there that night.”
Griffin was convicted in April of murdering Luka largely on the basis of DNA evidence collected from the victim in 1999 that was matched in 2007 to a DNA sample obtained from him by his parole officer.
Griffin, 50, was convicted in 1982 of murdering another young woman, Lynn Gheradi, in 1980 and was paroled from state prison in March 1996.
Griffin did not testify during the Luka murder trial, but this morning repeated his defense attorney’s argument that he had sex with Luka two nights before she was attacked but was at home with his wife the night of the assault.
Luka, 20, was found barely alive the morning of September 6, 1999, lying by the side of H-2 Freeway. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled and died the following month.
Luka’s brother, Air Force Maj. James Morimoto, was in court today and called Griffin “a waste of space.”
Morimoto told Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario he “fully endorsed” a sentence of life without parole but only because the death penalty is not available in Hawaii.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Takata called Griffin “a man compelled to satisfy his lust at any cost” and said he must never be released from prison.
“I’ve never seen a case like this,” Takata said.
His colleague in prosecuting Griffin, Leilani Tan, said she was “disgusted with what Mr. Griffin had to say” in court.
“The jury has spoken. Justice was finally served. It was delayed but it was not denied,” said Tan.