Recent Waianae High School graduate Dustin Molina was killed in Maili last week because his killer believed Molina was talking with the killer’s ex-girlfriend.
That’s what Deputy Prosecutor Kyle Dowd told a state judge Tuesday after an Oahu grand jury returned an indictment charging Kamaua Van Gieson with Molina’s murder.
The indictment also charges Van Gieson with kidnapping his ex-girlfriend and breaking into her home.
Circuit Judge Colette Garibaldi confirmed Van Gieson’s bail at $1 million.
Van Gieson, 20, remains in custody at Oahu Community Correctional Center.
Dowd told Garibaldi that Van Gieson stabbed Molina, 18, once in the neck on Dec. 4, swam Molina’s body offshore and left it in the ocean.
Honolulu police say a resident of the Maili Cove apartment complex called them the next morning to report seeing a body on the beach. The body was Molina’s. They said the Honolulu Medical Examiner determined that Molina’s body had two stab wounds.
Police said they interviewed Molina’s friends, who told them they last saw Molina alive on the night of Dec. 4 walking with Van Gieson, a mutual friend. They said Van Gieson’s cousin told them he picked up his cousin that night near Maili Beach Park.
The cousin said Van Gieson admitted stabbing someone named Dustin in the neck at Maili Beach Park and swimming Dustin’s body into the ocean. He said Van Gieson asked to be taken out of Waianae because people would be looking for him.
Dowd said earlier that evening Van Gieson broke into his ex-girlfriend’s bedroom, choked her with one hand and covered her mouth with the other to try to prevent her from screaming. He said Van Gieson fled after others in the house heard the ex-girlfriend’s screams.
Police were already looking for Van Gieson in connection with a Dec. 3 incident involving the ex-girlfriend. According to a CrimeStoppers Honolulu bulletin, the ex-girlfriend met Van Gieson in the parking lot of Kapolei Commons to retrieve her belongings. She entered his vehicle and when she tried to leave, Van Gieson grabbed her, pulled her back into the vehicle and began to drive away.
Dowd said the ex-girlfriend’s legs were dangling out of the vehicle’s open passenger door as Van Gieson was driving at high speed. He said that during the incident, Van Gieson pointed a hunting knife at the ex-girlfriend and threatened to kill her.
The ex-girlfriend eventually escaped and was able to get help from police investigating a separate incident nearby.
Police arrested Van
Gieson on Thursday in Aiea.
