California man pleads not guilty in hotel death
A 42-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to murder in connection with the death of a 29-year-old woman at a Waikiki hotel.
Jeremy J. Henderson of California appeared in Circuit Court on Monday via closed-circuit video link from the Oahu Community Correctional Center after an Oahu grand jury indicted him on a second-degree murder charge in the death of Ashley A. Brandeberry.
Brandeberry had been scheduled to appear in Honolulu District Court on May 16 on a prostitution charge.
Henderson’s attorney, David Bettencourt, entered a not-guilty plea on Henderson’s behalf.
Judge Colette Garibaldi confirmed Henderson’s bail at $1 million and scheduled his trial for July.
Early on the morning of April 21, paramedics and police officers responded to a call for a defibrillator at Henderson’s room at the Hilton Waikiki Beach Hotel. When they arrived at Room 1210, they found Brandeberry motionless on the floor.
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She was pronounced dead shortly after 5 a.m.
Police discovered “ligature-type” marks on her neck. A deputy prosecutor said a belt was found inside the room.
First Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Rachel Lang of the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office said the cause of death was ligature strangulation and that the manner of death was homicide.
