The defense lawyer for accused murderer Corbit K. Ahn said he believes evidence in the case may have been “tampered with.”

Donald Wilkerson made the comment after Ahn, 29, appeared in District Court this morning on a charge of murdering Iris Rodrigues-Kaikana, 18, the night of August 23.
Wilkerson declined to be more specific, saying additional information would be made public later.
District Judge Paula Devens ordered Ahn held on $2 million bail and scheduled a preliminary hearing in the case for Thursday morning.
Ahn’s mother, Cynthia, said outside court, “I believe my son is innocent,” adding that police originally had other suspects in the case but changed their focus based on testimony from witnesses who have now been placed in “a safe house.”
Police referred questions to the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney’s office.
Jim Fulton, executive assistant to Prosecutor Peter Carlisle, declined to comment on the allegations from Wilkerson and Cynthia Ahn, saying, “the investigation is continuing.”
Police said in court affidavits that a sample of DNA taken from Rodrigues-Kaikana's body matched a profile of Ahn's DNA.
Ahn was charged Sunday, two weeks after the young woman’s body was found in a pedestrian alley next to the Kamehameha Homes public housing complex.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner's office said cause of death was manual strangulation.
Rodrigues-Kaikana was visiting a friend in a Haka Drive apartment and Ahn was also present in the apartment, according to police.
Cynthia Ahn said this morning that her son went to the apartment regularly to visit his nephew and niece who live there with their mother, the former girlfriend of Ahn’s brother, Stephan, who passed away in 2007.
“My heart breaks for the Rodrigues-Kaikana family,” she said.
“I know what it’s like to lose a child. My son passed away two years ago,” she said.
Corbit Ahn goes to the apartment “constantly” to be with his niece and nephew and has also been giving martial arts training to the current boyfriend of the children’s mother, Mrs. Ahn said.
Other people in the apartment were suspects in the case but have now been taken by police to a “safe house,” Mrs. Ahn said.
She was accompanied to the court hearing by a woman who identified herself as the aunt of Corbit Ahn but declined to give her name.
“He really is not guilty,” said the aunt. “You have to know my nephew. He wouldn’t do something like this.”