Plea deal reached in Big Island murder

By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — An O'ahu man who was 16 years old when he beat a man to death with a rock pleaded guilty yesterday to second-degree murder.

A plea agreement will allow Michael Verece, now 18, to avoid a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors were seeking enhanced sentencing because of the brutal nature of the crime.

Verece's trial was to have opened yesterday with jury selection in Hilo Circuit Court.

Verece will receive a life term with the possibility of parole when he is sentenced in August by Judge Riki May Amano. Prosecutors and the family of the victim, 20-year-old Tetsuya Takahashi, have agreed not to oppose his release in 20 years when Verece goes before the Hawai'i Paroling Authority.

Verece was accused of killing Takahashi, a native of Fuchu City, Japan, on Feb. 13, 2001, after making several ATM withdrawals from Takahashi's account to buy drugs.Takahashi was a former Hawai'i Community College student who was planning to enroll at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo. He was working for an ocean sports company and had made plans to go to O'ahu for training to obtain a dive master's certificate.

Takahashi's body was found Feb. 18, 2001, near a roadside south of Hilo. An autopsy determined he suffered superficial stab wounds and died of blows to the head.

According to court records, Verece confessed to stabbing Takahashi and then hitting him with a rock.

Although Verece was only 16 when the slaying occurred, Family Court waived jurisdiction, clearing the way for him to be tried as an adult.

At the time of Takahashi's murder, Verece was a fugitive from Honolulu, where he was being held by juvenile correctional authorities for undisclosed crimes. He escaped from The Queen's Medical Center, where he had been taken for treatment, and fled to the Big Island. He was arrested Feb. 19 — the day after Takahashi's body was found — at Hilo Airport while waiting for a flight back to Honolulu.

Also under the plea agreement, a kidnapping count related to the murder and one of two second-degree robbery charges involving unrelated cases were dropped.

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