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ROSEMARIE BERNARDO / RBERNARDO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Nicholas Earl Torres, age 17, pleaded not guilty Thursday to murder in the stabbing of a Marine in Waikiki. He was represented by attorney Michael Green, right.
A 17-year-old boy accused of fatally stabbing a Marine in Waikiki pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in Circuit Court.
Nicholas Earl Torres stood before Judge Colette Garibaldi at his arraignment Thursday after he was charged with second-degree murder in the 2017 death of Sgt. William M. Brown, 23. A Family Court judge recently ruled to have Torres waived as an adult.
Torres’ attorney, Michael Green, entered a not-guilty plea to the charge.
Garibaldi confirmed his bail at $500,000 and set his trial for December.
Though Torres is being tried as an adult in the murder case, he is being held at the Hale Ho‘omalu Juvenile Detention Center in Kapolei. He is slated to be transferred to the Oahu Community Correctional Center when he turns 18 in January.
The deadly stabbing occurred during a large brawl at approximately 1 a.m. Oct. 21 at the corner of Kalakaua and Royal Hawaiian avenues.
Court documents said Torres, then 16, allegedly grabbed a knife from a 15-year-old boy he was with and stabbed Brown.
Brown was taken in critical condition to The Queen’s Medical Center where he later died of a stab wound to the chest.
Police detained several other juveniles associated with Torres who identified him as the one who had the knife.
Court documents said a knife was recovered from a storm drain at the intersection of Seaside and Kalakaua avenues. A surveillance camera captured Torres allegedly bending down near the storm drain.
When asked about the charge against Torres after the arraignment, Green said, “The question is whether factually the murder charge is the proper charge, whether in fact he’s the one that actually did the stabbing. There was another knife that was seen by witnesses.”
Brown, of Tennessee, was stationed at the Kaneohe Marine Corps Base Hawaii and served as an 81 mm mortarman in the Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force.
“It’s all needless and horrible,” Green said of Brown’s death.
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