Honolulu police arrested Aaron M. Susa yesterday afternoon on suspicion of second-degree murder in the death of Bryanna Antone, a 25-year-old New Mexico college student whose body was found on a Waikiki beach last week.

HPD Maj. Clayton Kau said Susa, 31, a convicted felon, was arrested at 4:38 p.m. on suspicion of the murder.

"We're in the process for pursuing charges for that," said Kau. "If he's charged with murder in the second degree, his bail will go up."

Susa had been arrested earlier yesterday on two outstanding traffic warrants and a recent probation revocation warrant, following his release from The Queen's Medical Center, where he had been held with an undisclosed ailment.

His bail for those warrants was set at $20,230, said Kau.

Antone's body was found by a jogger on the beach fronting The Royal Hawaiian hotel a week ago. Witnesses told police Susa and Antone had been seen leaving the Waikiki Ohana West Hotel together at around 1:40 a.m. that morning.

Antone, a film student at the College of Santa Fe, was in Honolulu to celebrate her birthday and join her family, here for a dentists' convention. Antone had turned 25 on Sept. 21.

Susa, a native of San Diego, was released from the Honolulu Federal Detention Center the day before Antone's body was found. Federal Bureau of Prison records show he had been serving four months for parole violation.

Friends and family of Antone, who described her as friendly and outgoing, said Susa and Antone met at a lu'au and that there was a video of the two leaving the lu'au together, the Albuquerque Journal reported Wednesday.

The Journal story did not identify which family members reported the video, or any details about how it was made.

Susa was taken into custody Monday after being identified as a "person of interest" in Antone's death. He was found hiding in bushes near Lunalilo and Liholiho streets in Makiki. At the time, Susa complained to police about an illness and was taken to a hospital. He remained in police custody during the time he was hospitalized.

Public records show Susa has been convicted on drug and burglary charges here and on the Mainland.

The Journal article quoted Susa's father, Michael Susa, as saying his adopted son had had problems with drugs and run-ins with authorities over the years.

"He wasn't able to cope with the day-to-day aspects of living," said the elder Susa, who lives in Missouri and hasn't seen his son in four years. "He started to surround himself with the wrong kind of friends, and at an early age he was introduced to drugs."

He said the family tried to get to the bottom of his drug difficulties.

"We did everything we could to salvage him," Michael Susa told the Journal. "We felt very bad about Aaron. We took on the burden to work with him and try to make him a good person for society. Along the way there were glimpses of hope. But the drugs had taken over."