HILO >> An appeals court has upheld the second-degree murder conviction in the Big Island shooting death of a man whose remains were found at a beach three months after he was reported missing.

Ben Baldado was sentenced in 2009 to life with a possibility for parole after he was convicted of murdering Jonah Mettler, 32, of Honaunau. Mettler’s girlfriend reported him missing in August 2003 after he said he was taking Baldado somewhere. A fisherman at a North Kohala beach found Mettler’s decomposed remains wrapped in plastic under a mattress box spring three months later.

Baldado’s attorney, Vaughan Winborne Jr., appealed the conviction on procedural grounds. He argued that 3rd Circuit Judge Elizabeth Strance wrongly allowed an alternate juror to replace a pregnant juror who got sick after deliberations began.

The appeals court ruled that while the substitution violated criminal procedure, the error was harmless because jurors had been instructed to begin a new deliberation process, Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Tuesday.

Winborne also argued that admitting into evidence recorded statements made to Detective Wayne Keala Young, who died before trial, was a violation of Baldado’s constitutional right to confront his accusers.

In the statements, Baldado had said he was there when a person named Pat shot Mettler. The appeals court rejected Baldado’s argument that Young’s death precluded the state from establishing his recorded statements were voluntary.

"If Baldado’s argument were accepted," the ruling said, "the prosecution would never be permitted to admit a defendant’s recorded statements if the officer conducting the interview subsequently died or otherwise was unable to testify at trial, even if other evidence establishing the voluntariness of the statements was available." 

Baldado had been seen driving Mettler’s truck after he was reported missing. He had been using Mettler’s phone and was writing checks in Mettler’s name, according to court documents.

When Baldado was charged with murder in September 2006, he was serving a five-year sentence on Oahu for unrelated crimes.