Arruda may reach plea bargain deal

David Nicholas Arruda, who faces second-degree murder involving the death of his live-in girlfriend’s 35-month-old son, said Friday he is ready to accept a plea bargain agreement.

Arruda made the statement during an appearance in Lihu‘e District Court. The plea agreement could mean he would only face manslaughter charges in the death of the child.

Manslaughter charges could mean a 20-year prison term, while the murder charge could mean life in prison with a chance for parole for Arruda. His bail was set at $100,000 in late January.

According to District Court documents obtained by The Garden Island, Arruda is accused of having “committed the criminal act of murder by omission when (he) intentionally and knowingly failed to seek medical attention for (the child) in a timely fashion.”

According to the court re-cords, on October 30, Arruda waited over six hours to call an ambulance after Kaimana Larry Dias-Duque slammed his head while playing and became unconscious. The boy had to be flown by air ambulance to Kapi‘olani Hospital for Women and Children on O‘ahu, but he died November 1, two days after the incident.

The affidavit in support of application for the warrant of arrest was signed by KPD Detective Marvin Rivera in November, and contained details of three separate interviews with Arruda.

According to the affidavit, Arruda, in the first two interviews, said the boy was laughing after banging his head during some horseplay in Arruda’s home.

The boy later went to sleep, and Arruda found him having difficulty breathing.

Arruda was watching the boy while his girlfriend, the boy’s mother, was at work, the documents say.

But in a third interview, the court documents continue, Arruda said he was throwing the boy in the air and catching him.

But he missed, and the boy fell to the floor, hitting his head. Arruda then grabbed the boy by the knees and was swinging him around, and he hit his head again.

The impact caused the boy to go unconscious, and Arruda panicked and pretended the boy was asleep when his mother came home, according to the court documents.

The mother, who didn’t notice anything wrong with her boy whom she thought was sleeping, went back to work.

A few hours later, when Arruda checked on the boy and noticed he was not breathing properly and his lips were purple, Arruda called his girlfriend and told her to call for help, the papers say.

Honolulu Medical Examiner, Dr. Kanthi von Gaunthner, decided after performing an autopsy that the boy had died from multiple impacts to the head, and he found evidence of five different impact points on the skull, the papers read.

Von Gaunthner concluded the manner of death was by homicide.

Police would not comment further on the arrest beyond saying their investigation is continuing.

Dias is pregnant with Arruda’s child, with the baby due to be born later this month.