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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 3:02 p.m., Thursday, February 5, 2009

KOKO CRATER SUSPECT IN COURT
Koko Crater stabbings detailed in suspect's court appearance

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Benjamin Davis, who has been charged with attempted murder in the Feb. 1 stabbings on Koko Crater trail, made his initial appearance in court today.

GREGORY YAMAMOTO | The Honolulu Advertiser

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The 19-year-old suspect in Sunday's stabbings on Koko Crater trail made his first court appearance this afternoon and had a preliminary hearing set for Monday.

Benjamin Davis, of Kalihi, has been charged with one count of first-degree attempted murder and two counts of second-degree attempted murder but entered no plea on the charges. Bail was set at $100,000.

Davis, wearing a blue hospital-type top and bottom, was escorted into District Court in handcuffs and leg shackles. He wore socks, but no shoes.

Davis had a bandage on this left hand that covered his left pinkie finger.

Following Davis' brief court appearance his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Debra K. Loy, declined to talk to reporters and said she would not try the case before the media.

Davis was arrested Sunday night along the side of the crater following the attacks on two hikers, Guy Tanaka and Nicholas Iwamoto, according to a police affidavit in the case.

Davis was found naked except for a black sneaker on his left foot and a black sock on his right foot, according to the affidavit.

"I want to turn myself in. I'm done," Davis told police, according to the affidavit.

Police approached Davis and told him to raise his hands above his head when Davis replied, "I don't have anything in my hands," according to the affidavit. "I dropped the knife on the mountain. I'm not armed. I don't have anything in my hands."

He was taken to Castle Medical Center for a mental evaluation but a psychiatrist and a physician concluded they had no reason to hold Davis. He was later released into police custody.

Both Tanaka and Iwamoto separately identified Davis in photo lineups as the man who attacked them, according to the affidavit. Tanaka told police he did not know Davis and that the attack was unprovoked.

Tanaka told police that he was at the helicopter landing pad atop Koko Crater's popular abandoned tramway around 3:18 p.m. Sunday when he was attacked by a man carrying a folding knife with a 4- to 5-inch blade.

His attacker wore a blank expression, Tanaka told police.

When he saw the knife, Tanaka tried to run toward the crater's edge but was stabbed in the left side of his back, according to the affidavit. Tanaka did not realize at first that he had been stabbed.

Witnesses later spotted Iwamoto in a ravine calling for help.

He suffered 11 stab wounds to his scalp, face, neck, chest, hands and abdomen. Iwamoto also suffered skull and neck fractures, a liver laceration, diaphragm laceration, damage to the esophagus and a collapsed lung, according to the affidavit.

Iwamoto's facial cuts will leave "permanent disfigurement," according to the affidavit.

At The Queen's Medical Center, Iwamoto underwent emergency tracheotomy surgery and a Queen's doctor told police that Iwamoto would have died without treatment.

Although Iwamoto identified Davis in the photo lineup, he has been unable to give police a statement about the attack because of his medical condition.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.