Convicted killer Bryan Suitt chose not to say anything in state court Monday as he received the mandatory life prison term with the possibility of parole.
His lawyer, Lee Hayakawa, told Circuit Judge Karen Ahn that he and Suitt are saving any comment and argument for the Hawaii Paroling Authority, which will decide when Suitt can be eligible for release.
Suitt pleaded no contest in August to the murder of Alex Gonzales, whose body parts were found along Mililani Memorial Park Road in September 2013.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office said Gonzales died from one or several of the 55 stab wounds found on his body.
Pretrial hearing testimony and Honolulu police, in court documents, revealed some details of the measures Suitt took to dispose of the body.
But with no confession or eyewitnesses, only Suitt knows why he killed Gonzales, then stored and dismembered the body in his own rented Waikiki apartment.
Post-sentencing comments from the prosecutor along with those same court documents and pretrial hearing testimony, however, provide some clues of the relationship between Suitt, who is from California, and Gonzales.
Honolulu police said a neighbor saw Suitt on the balcony of his 11th-floor Wailana apartment dressed in women’s underwear.
Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bell said Monday that another neighbor reported seeing Gonzales on the same balcony dressed in women’s clothing.
Just four days before Suitt pleaded no contest, Ahn denied his request to exclude from the trial evidence items the U.S. Marshals Serv– ice seized from a storage locker Suitt was renting in San Diego.
Honolulu Police Department hom- icide Detective Deena Thoemmes had testified that among the items seized from the storage locker is a Kodak minicamera. She said the camera contained video that “depicted Mr. Suitt dressed as a female and laying on the bed and doing some things.”
Bell said police have evidence that Suitt’s wife was with her husband in Honolulu on more than one occasion and that she is the one who secured the rental car that police believe was used to transport Gonzales’ body. He said police did not charge the wife with any crimes because they have no direct evidence linking her to the slaying or dismemberment.
