While being questioned by police, Aki said he used crystal methamphetamine the day before 11-year-old Kahealani Indreginal was killed, a source said. Aki, 20, of Kalihi, was indicted yesterday on a charge of second-degree murder. Circuit Circuit Judge Dan Kochi confirmed Aki's bail at $5 million.

City prosecutors said they will seek the state's harshest sentence: life in prison without parole.

According to police, Aki admitted killing the girl. But homicide investigators have been unable to confirm statements that he used a pipe to beat the girl and threw it and Kahealani's gold bracelets into a stream. Aki provided a location but police found nothing in a preliminary search.

Investigators yesterday reportedly looked into the availability of scuba divers to check the murky waters of the location, which is believed to be in the Halawa/Pearl Harbor area, a source said.

More details emerged yesterday on how police believe Kahealani was murdered, but not much has come to light about a possible motive.

Police at first said it was robbery, then said that was only part of it, but gave no details. Meanwhile, the family of the 'Aiea Elementary School sixth-grader is struggling to unravel what could have prompted the alleged actions of Aki, the boyfriend of Kahealani's half sister, Tanya Mamala-Tumbaga, and a close family friend for years.

Vincent Indreginal, Kahealani's father, said someone might have been pressuring Aki for money, perhaps to repay a drug debt.

"That's one of the things I kind of was thinking it might be," Indreginal said. "It is something that ran across my mind. I don't know it for a fact, though."

He hastened to add that he did not know if Aki ever used or sold drugs.

Aki has been allowed no visitors, except his attorney, who talked with him for about 30 minutes yesterday at O'ahu Community Correctional Center before the grand jury returned the indictment.

Karen Garo, Kahealani's aunt, said family members have assumed drugs were involved.

"We speculated that, but we don't know for sure," she said yesterday. "When we found out about it, that was what we assumed. It would be a normal thing that would be associated with drugs."

Garo's sister, Lori Moreno, isn't so sure.

"I would never have suspected that of him," she said. "When we see him, he seems normal. It's really hard to say."

But even if the family found a motive, that wouldn't explain what Aki is alleged to have done, Moreno said.

A police source said yesterday that Aki said he punched

Kahealani after she slapped him while they were eating in his parked car at an 'Aiea park, then continued beating her outside the car with a metal pipe he found in the parking lot.