Police Beat
Advertiser Staff
Boyfriend charged in woman's slaying
Police have charged a 34-year-old Waipahu man with second-degree murder for the death of his girlfriend.
Todd Lopez of Awalai Street was charged yesterday and is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail, police said.
The body of Lopez's girlfriend, Memory Joy Medina, was found Wednesday in the couple's home at Awalai Street with stab wounds to her neck. Medina, 30, was last seen or heard at midmorning Sunday when the couple got into an argument at their home, police said.
An anonymous woman called police dispatch at 7:15 a.m. Wednesday, asking police to check on Medina. Officers found Medina's body in the bathroom. Police found Lopez three hours later hiding in a closet at his grandmother's home in 'Aiea and arrested him, investigators said.
Hilo police probe attempted murder
Hilo police were continuing to investigate an attempted-murder case in which two men were wounded by gunshots Wednesday in the Hawaiian Acres subdivision of Kurtistown.
At 11:25 p.m. Wednesday, Puna District patrol officers received a report at the Kea'au Police Station that a man had been shot and had driven himself to the Kea'au Fire Station for treatment, police said. At the same time, police received another report of an adult male with gunshot wounds at a Hawaiian Acres subdivision home.
A preliminary investigation determined that the shooting incidents were related.
The two men were taken to the Hilo Medical Center, where one man, 55, was treated and released. The other man, 32, was listed in critical condition.
No arrests have been made, police said.
Man, 20, arraigned on robbery charges
A 20-year-old man was arraigned yesterday on first-degree robbery charges after he allegedly held up a man at knifepoint in the bathroom of Hawaiian Brian's Billiards on Tuesday.
Bail was set at $25,000 for Moses Kawaa, who has no local address.
Kawaa allegedly fled the game room through a side exit at about 2:20 a.m. Tuesday. He allegedly returned early Wednesday morning and was recognized by game room staff, who called police.
He was caught on a nearby street, identified by the victim and charged at 4:46 a.m., police said.
Arraignment follows Waikiki hotel theft
A 28-year-old Kaka'ako man who was seen scaling balconies between the 27th and 28th floors of a Waikiki hotel early Tuesday was arraigned yesterday, charged with breaking into a guest's room on the 28th floor.
Police caught Duane Magallanes at 1:30 a.m. in a 27th-floor room at the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort. The room was registered to a guest with whom Magallanes was staying.
Magallanes allegedly stood on the balcony railing and pulled himself to the balcony above, police said. Items believed taken from the 28th-floor room were recovered at the arrest scene, police said.
