Slaying victim had restraining order

By Kapono Dowson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Homicide victim Zaleha Dearmond asked the courts for protection from her husband, David Allen Dearmond, more than a month before her fatal beating. She filed for a temporary restraining order from family court May 3, which the courts granted.

Court records show that the Pearl Harbor sailor was served the restraining order by May 15. He was ordered by the courts not to come near her.

On Monday, Zaleha Dearmond, 31, and her mother, Saniah Binte Abdul Ghani, 66, a citizen of Singapore, were found dead in the couple's Hokulani subdivision home.

David Dearmond is being held at the Ford Island Brig. The 32-year-old sailor is a suspect in the crimes, but has not been charged, the Navy says.

The Honolulu medical examiner's office said on Thursday that Zaleha Dearmond was beaten to death, and her mother fatally stabbed.

David Dearmond, a petty officer second class who is a hull technician at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, walked into a Navy security office at about 11 a.m. Monday and told officers to go to his home on Leal Place just outside Pearl Harbor.

Authorities found the two women dead in Dearmond's quarters after he reported the "emergency" there.

Zaleha Dearmond died of "cranial cerebral injuries due to assaultive blunt force to the head," the coroner's report said.

Ghani's death was caused by "injuries to chest and abdominal organs due to stab wounds to chest and abdomen."

The Navy says the investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is continuing. Dearmond could face a court-martial and receive the death penalty if convicted, the Navy says.

The couple's three children — two boys ages 2 and 5, and a 3-year-old girl — were not injured. They were transferred to the state's Child Protective Services.

According to domestic violence experts, 75 percent of the women who are killed in such situations are killed when they are leaving the relationship.

The O'ahu domestic abuse hotline is 531-3771.