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Man, 23, charged in fatal stabbing in Hawaii Kai appears in court

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
                                Honolulu police officers stood near the scene of a fatal stabbing at the intersection of Hahaione Street and Hawaii Kai Drive Tuesday morning.
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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM

Honolulu police officers stood near the scene of a fatal stabbing at the intersection of Hahaione Street and Hawaii Kai Drive Tuesday morning.

A 23-year-old man charged in Tuesday’s fatal stabbing of another man in Hawaii Kai made his initial appearance at District Court Friday.

Jake Edwards appeared before Judge Clarence Pacarro via videoconference from the courthouse cellblock on a second- degree murder charge in the death of Parker J. Trantham, also 23.

His bail is set at $1 million.

Attorney Myles Breiner is representing Edwards.

“It was a very sad turn of events,” Breiner said of the stabbing. He noted the two men were close childhood friends who went their separate ways and recently reconnected.

Whatever occurred leading up to Trantham’s death remains to be seen, he added.

Police said officers responded to a call of an altercation between two men just before 10:10 a.m. Tuesday at the Ewa corner of the Hahaione Street and Hawaii Kai Drive intersection.

Construction workers at a job site in the area told the men to stop fighting, at which time the two appeared to walk away from one another. But they started arguing again when the crew returned to work, police said.

Charging documents allege one of the men involved in the altercation stabbed the other man once in the chest with a knife and fled the scene.

The stabbing victim, later identified as Trantham, walked across Hahaione Street and collapsed near a pedestrian crosswalk signal pole.

Police responded and administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation until Honolulu Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services personnel arrived. EMS administered lifesaving treatment to no avail, and he was pronounced dead.

Patrol and plainclothes officers searched Hahaione Valley for a suspect later identified as Edwards and arrested him on the 500 block of Kawaihae Street shortly before 12:50 p.m.

Trantham’s father, Rob Trantham, has said his son and Edwards were best friends in their early adolescent years but had a falling out at some point and drifted apart.

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