A woman accused of murder in connection with the 2018 beating death of a man found unconscious at a bus stop on Kapiolani Boulevard Monday pleaded not guilty to the charge in
Circuit Court.
Catherine Laumea, 23, also known as Catherine
Lysja Laumea and Catt,
appeared at her arraignment before Judge Shirley Kawamura via closed
circuit video link from the Oahu Community Correctional Center after an Oahu grand jury indicted her last week on second-degree murder charges in the death of Joey Nguyen, 49.
She is the third person
to be indicted in the murder. A grand jury in September indicted Chu Lun Aiona, 39, and co-defendant Nicholas Payne, 36, for murder in the deadly
Aug. 28, 2018 attack on Nguyen.
According to the indictment, Laumea intentionally caused Nguyen’s death by inflicting injury on him
and/or failing to seek aid
for him from law enforcement or medical personnel.
Police arrested her Wednesday at the Women’s Community Correctional Center, where she was in custody for unrelated crimes.
During the arraignment, deputy public defender Henry Ting entered a not guilty plea on Laumea’s
behalf. He described her
$1 million bail as excessive and requested supervised release and/or a bail reduction.
Deputy Prosecutor Kaiwi Ching objected to the request and informed the judge that 2-by-4-inch
lumber was used to strike Nguyen in the brutal attack. He also noted Laumea has multiple criminal contempt of court offenses and a forgery case against her is pending.
Kawamura denied Ting’s request and confirmed Laumea’s bail at $1 million. Her trial is set for July.
According to court
documents filed at Circuit Court in September, a witness described by initials “C.L.” said she was sleeping in an abandoned building
at 1687 Kapiolani Boulevard and woke up to people yelling. The woman also told police Nguyen’s attackers punched and kicked him
repeatedly in the face and body.
He was found unresponsive on the ground near a bus stop fronting the abandoned building, and taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. The
Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office has said he died of blunt force injury to the head.
In April, Aiona pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of first-degree assault under a plea agreement with
prosecutors. Under the deal, Aiona agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and testify against Payne, who
is set to go to trial in
June. Aiona, who is scheduled to be sentenced in
August, also agreed to testify in a case against Laumea.