Bail for a man charged with the stabbing murder of his cousin at an 'Ewa Beach apartment on July 4 was increased from $500,000 to $1 million yesterday. The change came after a city deputy prosecutor said Tyler Condon might get released on bail at the lower amount and flee to the Mainland.

Condon, 22, was indicted earlier in the day by the O'ahu grand jury on a second-degree murder charge in the stabbing of Jake Hale, 28. Hale was found clutching his stomach outside the apartment at the Palm Villas II on Mikohu Street.

If convicted, Condon would face a mandatory life term with the possibility of parole.

Circuit Judge Derrick Chan increased the bail at the request of city Deputy Prosecutor Vickie Kapp, who told him that Hale's relatives said Condon's father has a "lucrative law practice" in California and would post bail for his son. Condon could then flee to the Mainland and hide on a Native American reservation, Kapp said.

Chan said the request to increase the bail was "reasonable."

Kapp said Hale was stabbed five times, and that he identified his cousin as the alleged attacker. Condon has been in Hawai'i for about two months, but had been kicked out of his home and has no residence or employment, she said.

The two cousins are both Native Americans, Kapp said.

In a separate case, the judge also increased bail for two men indicted on attempted second-degree murder charges in the beating and stabbing of a 32-year-old man left to die in an abandoned sugar cane field off Waialua Beach Road on June 22.

Thomas Lee Manijo, 45, and Steven Ray Bihag, 36, were among five people who kicked, punched and stabbed the victim over a drug debt, Kapp told the judge. She said the two men are members of a gang.

Chan granted her request to increase each of the two men's bail from $100,000 to $500,000.

If convicted of the second-degree attempted murder charge, the men both would face a mandatory life prison term with parole.

Also indicted yesterday on a charge of attempted second-degree murder was Guillermo Fernandez, a taxi driver accused of repeatedly driving a cab into a customer. The incident occurred June 29 after Fernandez dropped the customer off near CompUSA on Ala Moana Boulevard, according to Kapp.

The prosecutor told the judge that Fernandez has a criminal record that includes eight convictions for contempt of court.

Fernandez's bail had been set at $50,000.

The charge carries a mandatory life term with the possibility of parole.

The indictments send the cases to trials.

All four defendants are scheduled to be arraigned later this month, when they are expected to plead not guilty and get trial dates.

Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.