A state judge ordered 16-year-old Ka’Ano’i Kipapa transferred back to the Kapolei Youth Detention Facility Monday to await trial as an adult for murder.

Kipapa was in state court Monday for his arraignment. He pleaded not guilty and remains in custody unable to post $250,000 bail.

Circuit Judge Richard Perkins scheduled Kipapa to stand trial in January.

Deputy Public Defender Crystal Glendon asked for the transfer because she said Kipapa is kept in special holding at the Oahu Community Correctional Center to separate him from the adult pretrial detainees. She said the staff at OCCC keeps Kipapa in his cell 23 hours each day.

She had originally asked for transfer to the Youth Correctional Facility in Kailua, operated by the state Department of Human Services. She changed her request to the Kapolei YDF, operated by the state Judiciary, because she said it has more appropriate accommodations, is newer and is more secure.

Kipapa had been in custody at the Kapolei facility until a state Family Court judge waived the court’s jurisdiction over him Oct. 30, making the Waimanalo teen eligible to be charged and tried as an adult.

Deputy Honolulu Prosecutor Janice Futa told Perkins the state opposes the transfer. She said according to state law, when the Family Court waives its jurisdiction, the juvenile must be held in the detention facility used for persons charged with a crime. Juvenile offenders under Family Court jurisdiction are not charged or convicted of crimes.

The state Department of Public Safety prefers sending Kipapa to Kapolei, said Renee Sonobe Hong, deputy state attorney general. She said separating Kipapa from the adult detainees has come at an extreme cost and burden on the OCCC staff. 

Perkins ordered the transfer, he said, in the spirit of a state law which allows judges to commit juveniles who had been waived and convicted to Hawaii youth correctional facilities until they reach 18 years old. They would then serve the remainder of their confinement in an adult prison.

Kipapa is charged with murder for the July 5 stabbing death of is adoptive mother, 52-year-old Jolyn Kipapa, in the family’s home at Waimanalo Bay Beach Park. Kipapa’s husband is the park’s caretaker.

Honolulu police said the younger Kipapa told them he repeatedly hit and stabbed his mother after becoming enraged. The state said Kipapa called police, told them something dark had come over him and that his mother was covered in blood with a knife in her chest. Police said Kipapa told them after he hung up the telephone, he continued stabbing his mother.

The state said the first officer at the home found the younger Kipapa also covered in blood and a kitchen knife and cleaver near Jolyn Kipapa’s body. She was partially disabled because of an illness, the state said.