After waiting two months for DNA analysis, police finally got the evidence to persuade a grand jury to indict Keoni Tomas with murder in the Jan. 2 death of his 61-year-old aunt, Gail Otsuka.
The indictment comes nearly two weeks after Tomas, 25, was charged March 10 with second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of his mother, Kimberly Vinuya, at their Kahului home.
"I’m not going to speculate if we received the DNA earlier, we would have been able to prevent something like this," said Maui police Criminal Investigation Division Capt. David Silva.
He said the DNA results arrived last week from the Honolulu Police Department’s laboratory. Tomas was indicted Friday by a Maui grand jury in Otsuka’s death.
A no-bail bench warrant was issued and Tomas was arrested Monday and charged with second-degree murder in Otsuka’s stabbing. He was originally arrested Jan. 2, but was never charged in the slaying of Otsuka, whose body was found in her Kahului home.
Police recovered evidence from the scene and sent the DNA for analysis to HPD’s Scientific Information Section, the state’s only full-service forensic laboratory.
After Maui police conferred with prosecutors, Tomas was released pending investigation.
"If we had our own lab to do DNA testing, we would do it at our own speed," Silva said.
Maui County Prosecutor John Kim declined to comment.
Tomas was already being held at Maui County Community Correctional Center in lieu of $1 million bail in his mother’s death when the indictment in the Otsuka case was handed down.
