The city prosecutor wants a state judge to deny bail for a murder defendant who is accused of dismembering his victim.
Bryan Suitt, 46, is scheduled to stand trial next month for murder. He remains in custody unable to post $5 million bail.
The prosecutor claims Suitt poses a risk of flight if released and will ask a state judge Thursday to deny or increase Suitt’s bail.
An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment in November charging Suitt with murder in the death of 34-year-old Alex Gonzales. Suitt was not in custody at the time so a state judge ordered the indictment filed under seal pending Suitt’s apprehension.
U.S. Marshals Service deputies arrested Suitt in San Diego in December and Honolulu police returned him to Honolulu under extradition last month. The indictment, however, remains sealed.
Suitt killed Gonzales between Aug. 17 and Sept. 16 last year, the prosecutor said in his motion.
Information police told the court to secure several search warrants, however, suggest Gonzales died in early September.
Police said a husband and wife who stopped to pick up some cans for recycling on the side of Mililani Memorial Park Road called them on Sept. 15 after the couple smelled a foul odor and spotted a hand sticking out of a trash bag.
The first officer to respond found a human torso inside the bag. Another officer found more remains partially buried in a shallow grave across the road.
Officials from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command unearthed the remains from the shallow grave. Police found more remains in nine more trash bags, a hard-shell suitcase, and two ABC Stores plastic shopping bags.
The ABC bags and several of the trash bags had what appeared to be blood on them.
A Honolulu medical examiner performed an autopsy on the remains and determined that the victim died from "multiple sharp force injuries" to various parts of the body.
Police used fingerprint impressions the medical examiner took from the remains to identify them as those of Gonzales. They also determined that DNA samples taken from the remains and flesh were consistent with Gonzales’ DNA profile.
They connected the shopping bags and suitcase to Suitt from ABC and Walmart sales transaction records and store video.
A former roommate told police he last saw and spoke to Gonzales between Sept. 2 and Sept. 5. He said Gonzales was with an unknown man matching Suitt’s description at Island Hostel in Waikiki.
He said he saw Gonzales again later that same evening downstairs of the Wailana Waikiki apartment building a half-block away.
The former roommate said Gonzales told him he was staying with the unknown man at Wailana and doing some tile work for him. He said Gonzales complained about the man being bossy and not paying him upfront for his work.
The former roommate said Gonzales told him he waited until the man fell asleep, took money from the man’s wallet, then went downstairs.
Phone records police obtained from cellular service providers show more than 200 calls between Gonzales’ and Suitt’s phones Aug. 12-25.
A friend of Gonzales told police she found Gonzales’ backpack on or about Sept. 5 in a trash bin near the Discovery Bay condominiums around the corner from the Wailana. She said the backpack contained Gonzales’ personal belongings, including his medical card, spike bracelet, "Batman" belt, some T-shirts, a pair of sneakers, knife and tools.
Police said Suitt had paid six months of rent and was a registered resident of Wailana from August 2013 to February 2014.
The residents in the unit below Suitt’s reported to building security that they heard sawing and loud pounding noises coming from Suitt’s apartment late in the evening of Sept. 11.
Another resident told police he smelled the odor of decaying flesh coming from Suitt’s apartment. He said the smell later changed to the same odor mixed with chlorine, then no smell at all.
