The state Department of the Attorney General assumed control of the homicide investigation started by Honolulu police after a 36-year-old Oahu Community Correctional Center inmate was found dead in his cell July 6.
During a scheduled contraband search Friday, investigators confiscated mobile phones, wireless headsets, wired headsets, chargers, methamphetamine stuffed into small jars, a plastic bag filled with unidentified drug capsules, vials of anabolic steroids, syringes, Lost Mary disposable vapes and other banned material from inmates.
The search was managed by the Attorney General’s Office, state Department of Public Safety’s Sheriff Division, the Narcotics Enforcement Division and Internal Affairs. Internal and criminal investigations were opened, but no arrests have been made.
State officials declined to name any of the inmates who had items seized in the search, what those items were or what kind of criminal cases have been opened.
“As the investigations are in the preliminary stages, the department will not be commenting further at this time, to allow the full investigative process to take its course and to preserve the integrity of the investigations underway,” Toni Schwartz, public information officers for the state Department of Public Safety and Department of Law Enforcement told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in a statement.
State investigators were also looking for a mobile phone that might contain recorded footage of the beating death of Christopher Ikaika Vaefaga Jr., who was found unresponsive in module 13 on July 6.
Vaefaga’s cause and manner of death are not yet available to the public, according to the city Department of the Medical Examiner.
Two inmates were identified by the Honolulu Police Department as suspects in the killing but have not been arrested.
HPD opened a homicide investigation after Vaefaga’s body was found, and identified the two alleged suspects who were in the same housing unit as Vaefaga prior to his death.
Vaefaga “may have been assaulted by two other male inmates,” according to HPD, who are ages 41 and 33.
The Attorney General’s Office declined to answer a question from the Star-Advertiser about whether the two suspects identified by HPD have been arrested in connection with Vaefaga’s death.
The Attorney General’s Office does employ retired police officers who have
experience working homicide cases as investigators.
“This is an active murder investigation, which is being handled by the Department of the Attorney General as the lead agency. The Honolulu Police Department has provided valuable assistance,” said David D. Day, an attorney and special assistant to
Attorney General Anne E. Lopez. “Any prosecution arising from this investigation would be handled by the Criminal Justice Division of the Department of the Attorney General.”
HPD leadership met with representatives from the Attorney General’s Office and Department of Public safety after Vaefaga’s body was found, according to multiple sources.
All agencies agreed that the attorney general’s investigators would take over the investigation and ensure proper collection of evidence and crime scene security.
HPD’s Criminal Investigation Division-Homicide Detail and its Scientific Investigative Section assisted with the initial investigation, police have said.
In 2020 a murder at OCCC and another at the Halawa Correctional Facility that occurred over a two-week span were investigated by HPD detectives and prosecuted by the state Department of the Attorney General.
HPD leadership and representatives from the Attorney General’s Office and DPS met after those cases in 2020 and decided that future prison and jail killings would be investigated and prosecuted by the state.
