A preliminary hearing for a 35-year-old Kurtistown man charged with second-degree murder and second-degree assault has been set for Thursday.
A preliminary hearing for a 35-year-old Kurtistown man charged with second-degree murder and second-degree assault has been set for Thursday.
Ammon Kaipo Spencer Stanley was charged after a corpse was found badly burned within a car in Puna over the weekend.
The charges stem from an incident that was first reported Saturday at around 3 p.m., when Puna Patrol officers responded to a vehicle on fire with a body inside on Beach Road.
Officers found the vehicle, and the charred human remains inside of it, about 100 feet off the roadway.
Following up on leads, officers identified Stanley as a suspect and arrested him at 5:55 p.m. Saturday at a Kurtistown residence.
A preliminary hearing was set for 2 p.m. Thursday in Hilo District Court after Judge Jeffrey Hawk denied a request for bail reduction by public defender Evans Smith.
Due to the severity of the allegations, Judge Hawk decided to keep bail at $1,010,000.
Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact Detective John Balberde at (808) 961-2386 or email him at John.Balberde@hawaiicounty.gov or the police department’s nonemergency number at (808) 935-3311.
