Police have arrested a Nānākuli man in connection with a Jan. 26 attack on a Mā'ili woman in what may have been a botched robbery attempt.

Nico McLean, 18, was arrested Friday afternoon at a pig farm on Kaukama Road in Mā'ili in connection with the beating that left Teresita Pascua, 69, unconscious and covered in blood in the living room of her home on Ho'okele Street.

Pascua was hit with such force that her dentures were knocked out of her mouth.

In a police statement filed in District Court shortly after McLean's arrest, Pascua told a detective assigned to the case that she was standing in her carport about 12:40 p.m. when a slim young man wearing a gray "hoodie" approached her and asked if "Ryan" was home.

Pascua told the man that no one by the name of Ryan lived at the house, but the man continued to press her about where Ryan might be and told her Ryan owed him money, according to the statement.

Pascua told the detective that she was becoming increasingly nervous, grabbed a broom and told the man that her son was home and that her husband would be home in a few minutes.

According to the statement, Pascua told the detective she would be able to recognize the man in the gray shirt and another man who stood outside her gate while she was talking to the man in the hoodie.

She said the young man turned around and began to walk out of her yard toward the other man who had remained outside her gate. Pascua said she thought it was safe to turn around and enter her home, but that was the last thing she remembered before regaining consciousness in her living room.

The detective said in the statement that he later was looking for possible suspects in the neighborhood where Pascua was attacked and approached a group of men near Helemua and Ho'okele streets, where one of the men provided the name "Nico McLean" and walked away without providing any more information.

According to the statement, the detective ran a criminal background check on McLean and found that the general description provided by Pascua fit McLean.

The detective said he put together a photographic line up and showed it to Pascua on Feb. 2, at which point she identified McLean as the man she was talking to in her carport just before she was assaulted.

McLean was arrested at the pig farm Friday on suspicion of first-degree robbery as well as first-degree burglary.

He remained in custody yesterday while awaiting a possible preliminary hearing or a grand jury indictment in the case.