A 57-year-old homeless man was in a coma for 12 days suffering from brain damage after he was hit on the head with a beer bottle and beaten repeatedly on two occasions on the same night in Chinatown, according to court documents.

Shelton Higa died after he was taken off life support on July 29.

Afterward, Michael Abella, 35, was charged with second-degree murder, and he remains in custody unable to post $200,000 bail.

A police affidavit said Higa died at the Queen’s Medical Center, where he had been taken after two beatings on July 17.

Medical Examiner Dr. Christopher Happy, who performed an autopsy on Higa, determined that the cause of death was complications of blunt force head injury with a subdural hemorrhage, according to the police affidavit.

A neurosurgeon who treated Higa told police the victim was in a coma with a brain injury. After surgery was performed to remove a blood clot that was compressing Higa’s brain, his condition improved slightly. However, Higa remained in a coma on a ventilator until he was taken off life support.

Higa was the father of Matthew Higa, who the parole board in 2010 sentenced to 200 years in prison for second-degree murder for throwing a 23-month-old child, Cyrus Belt, off an overpass into traffic on the H-1 freeway. Shelton Higa lived with his son Matthew in an upstairs apartment in the same Iolani Avenue building where Cyrus lived with his mother. Shelton Higa testified in Matthew Higa’s trial that he regularly smoked Ice with his son.

According to the police affidavit, several witnesses saw Abella beat Shelton Higa on two separate occasions on July 17 in Chinatown.

After the second assault, Higa, lying on a gurney in an ambulance, also identified Abella as his assailant.

The first assault occurred about 8:45 p.m. near the Smith-Beretania Park, according to the affidavit. Higa was treated at the scene at Smith and North Pauahi streets but refused to be taken to a hospital by ambulance.

About an hour after Higa was treated, police were sent to North Pauahi and Fort streets because the suspect in Higa’s assault was seen in the area. Police found Higa lying on the ground at Smith and North Pauahi streets. He told the officers that the same man who assaulted him earlier in the night had returned and punched his chest and stomach with a closed fist.

Police said Higa was first attacked from behind by a man who hit him on the head with a 40-ounce beer bottle that shattered, a witness told police. Another witness said Abella continued hitting Higa on the head and face before fleeing through the park.

A third witness told police that after Higa refused to be taken by ambulance to the hospital Higa remained at North Pauahi street. Although Higa felt "dizzy" he didn’t want to call for help because he thought that would anger paramedics, the affidavit said.

Higa was on his hands and knees on the sidewalk when the suspect approached and again hit Higa five to six times in the face and head until a male bystander intervened, the witness told police.

The third witness followed Abella as he ran north on Bethel Street heading toward South Beretania Street, flagging down a patrol officer.