Accused murderer Taryn Christian will spend Christmas with his family on Maui after a federal magistrate yesterday ordered him released from prison on $100,000 bail.

Christian, 32, was convicted in the 1995 stabbing death of Vilmar Cabaccang on Maui, but U.S. District Judge David Ezra ruled in October that Christian, who says he is innocent, did not receive a fair trial in state court.

Maui prosecutors have appealed that ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and yesterday federal Magistrate Judge Leslie Kobayashi ordered Christian released from custody while that appeal is pending.

He has been serving a 40-year sentence for the Cabaccang murder.

Kobayashi ordered Christian's mother and stepfather, Lori and Paul Smith, to put up their Maui home as security for the $100,000 bail. Kobayashi noted that it could take four to six weeks to process the bail paperwork but ordered Christian to be released immediately and to be supervised by the federal Office of Pretrial Services.

She warned Christian that any violation of court rules while he is free would result in his immediate incarceration and forfeiture of the $100,000 bond.

Maui First Deputy Prosecutor Peter Hanano earlier lost a motion for Christian to remain in custody without bail and then asked Kobayashi to set bail at $1 million.

After Kobayashi ordered Christian released, Hanano said, "The court's order is not what we asked for."

He promised that if the appeals court upholds Ezra's ruling that Christian did not receive a fair trial, Christian will be prosecuted again for the Cabaccang slaying.

"There will be a re-trial," Hanano said outside court.

After the hearing, Christian's mother said her son's release "has been a long time coming."

She thanked defense lawyers Keith Shigetomi of Honolulu and Mark Barrett of Oklahoma for working diligently for years on her son's behalf.

The defense lawyers have argued that another man, James "Hina" Burkhart, murdered Cabaccang and admitted his guilt to several friends and associates.

Magistrate Kobayashi and Judge Ezra both ruled that testimony about those alleged confessions was wrongfully excluded during the murder trial.

Burkhart took the Fifth Amendment when called to testify in Christian's case.

An attorney for Burkhart, who is now in federal custody awaiting sentencing for felony gun possession charges, declined comment on the Cabaccang case.