Man, 59, charged with murder of Molokai woman appears in court

A 59-year-old man charged with murder in connection with the death of 43-year-old Amie Kaholoaa in Molokai made his initial appearance at Wailuku District Court today.

Mariano Garces, also known as Mariano Tamayo Garces Jr., appeared before Judge Christopher Dunn in a white T-shirt via video conference from the courthouse cellblock for a second-degree murder charge in connection with the death of Kaholoaa of Kaunakakai.

Garces’ preliminary hearing is scheduled for Monday. The court maintained his bail at $1 million.

The Maui Police Department said Molokai dispatchers received a 911 call from a man about a possible murder at his residence in Kaunakakai Saturday afternoon. When officers arrived, they discovered Kaholoaa’s lifeless body in the home.

Police searched the area for the man to no avail.

The man, identified as Garces, returned to his residence the next morning where officers arrested him on suspicion of murder.

Court records show Kaholoaa filed a petition for a temporary restraining order against Garces on Feb. 1, alleging Garces choked her, punched her in the face and hit her with a stick on Jan. 31.

“I have bruises on my body from this incident,” she said in the petition. “I’m afraid of him and feel like he will kill me one day.”

The February petition indicated that Garces and Kaholoaa were in an intimate relationship for six months. Kaholoaa alleged that he abused her for the past three months and that the abuse “has not stopped,” the petition said.

She also alleged Garces has a long history of drug use and anger issues and requested Garces seek help via anger management classes and drug court.

Nearly two weeks after the filing, the court terminated the petition after Kaholoaa did not appear at a scheduled hearing to address the petition.