LIHU’E – Howard I. Giddens, the 27-year-old Hanama’ulu man accused of shooting a neighbor to death Monday morning after wounding another man at Hanama’ulu Beach Park only minutes before, was arraigned early Thursday morning in Circuit Judge Clifford Nakea’s courtroom.
LIHU’E – Howard I. Giddens, the 27-year-old Hanama’ulu man accused of shooting
a neighbor to death Monday morning after wounding another man at Hanama’ulu
Beach Park only minutes before, was arraigned early Thursday morning in Circuit
Judge Clifford Nakea’s courtroom.
A preliminary hearing, in which Giddens
will likely enter a plea to six felony charges, was set for next Monday at 10
a.m.
Nakea’s courtroom was full for the arraignment, but most of the
standing-room-only crowd wasn’t attending Giddens’ first official court
appearance.
Most were there for their own courtroom matters.
Giddens’
proceedings were shifted at the last minute.
First, authorities moved his
arraignment up from the original 10 a.m.
Then two officers hustled the
shackled (wrists and ankles), orange jumpsuited defendant in front of the judge
without any preliminary announcements.
Head down, Giddens – his black hair
long on top and shorn on the sides – said nothing as Nakea set his preliminary
hearing.
According to Craig De Costa, Kaua’i County chief deputy prosecutor
who is trying the case, the preliminary hearing will be when the state must
show probable cause.
Public defender Ed Acoba represented Giddens at
Thursday’s brief court appearance.
Giddens remains in custody at Kaua`i
Community Correctional Center in lieu of $500,000 bail. He’s been there since
Monday morning, when he surrendered after the police surrounded a house on
Ho`ohana Street where he was hiding.
Giddens faces six charges, including
three separate murder and attempted murder counts and three lesser
charges.
Colan Fernandes, 42, died Monday after allegedly being shot by
Giddens inside the residence at 4286 Ho`ohana St., where the victim lived with
his mother and brother.
Another man, still hospitalized at Wilcox Memorial
Hospital, was listed Thursday in fair condition. His identity has been withheld
by authorities.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681
(ext. 252) and [
HREF=”mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net”>dwilken@pulitzer.net]
