The man accused of strangling an 18-year-old-woman last month is on probation for a 2007 domestic violence case in which he choked and struck his wife, court records show.

Corbit K. Ahn, 29, appeared in District Court yesterday morning on a charge of murdering Iris Rodrigues-Kaikana the night of Aug. 23.

The young woman's body was found the next morning in a pedestrian alley next to the Kamehameha Homes public housing complex. The medical examiner's office reported that the cause of death was manual strangulation.

Ahn was sentenced to a year in prison and five years of probation in 2007 for assaulting his wife at a Pearl City home they shared with their five young children, according to court records.

Ahn choked his wife "on the front of the neck, causing a small red mark," police reported.

When she was calling her brother to help her, Ahn struck her in the face, fracturing her nose, court files show.

Ahn pleaded guilty in that case and to a separate charge of breaking into a car at Ala Moana Center in 2006. Circuit Judge Karl Sakamoto sentenced him to a year in prison and five years of probation.

He was working as a truck driver at the time of sentencing.

Ahn was also convicted in December 2004 of second-degree terroristic threatening and was sentenced to a year of probation.

He was brought into District Court yesterday morning under heavy guard of state deputy sheriffs for an initial appearance on the charge of murdering Rodrigues-Kaikana.

District Judge Paula Devens ordered Ahn held on $2 million bail and scheduled a preliminary hearing in the case for tomorrow morning.

'MY SON IS INNOCENT'

Ahn's lawyer, Donald Wilkerson, said after the hearing that he believes evidence in the murder case may have been "tampered with."

Wilkerson declined to be more specific, saying additional information would be made public later.

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.

VISITING FRIENDS

Rodrigues-Kaikana had been visiting a friend in a Haka Drive apartment and Ahn was also present in the apartment, according to police.

Cynthia Ahn said yesterday 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," Cynthia Ahn said.

"I know what it's like to lose a child. My son passed away two years ago."

Corbit Ahn went to the apartment "constantly" to spend time with his niece and nephew and has also been giving martial arts training to the current boyfriend of the children's mother, Cynthia 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."