A preliminary District Court hearing Thursday for Mark Vargas, 47, initially accused of attempted murder in the stabbing last Saturday night of a 59-year-old Kekaha man, ended with the charge being reduced. Judge Trudy Senda did assign Vargas’ case to
A preliminary District Court hearing Thursday for Mark Vargas, 47, initially accused of attempted murder in the stabbing last Saturday night of a 59-year-old Kekaha man, ended with the charge being reduced.
Judge Trudy Senda did assign Vargas’ case to Fifth Circuit Court, but only on a lesser charge of assault in the second degree.
Senda ruled that there wasn’t probable cause for an attempted murder charge.
Authorities said afterward that if the victim dies — he remains in critical condition at Queens Hospital on Oahu, where he was flown Saturday — the charges could be amended upward to murder.
Vargas, who has one arm and one leg, stabbed the older man after a physical altercation at Kekaha low-income housing, where Vargas is a resident.
The victim was not a resident of the complex.
Vargas is in custody at Kaua’i Community Correctional Center in lieu of $20,000 bail. He has requested a bail reduction, and Senda has ordered a bail study.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
