Body in burned car in Hawaii leads to arrest for murder

HONOLULU — Police charged a man with murder after finding a “badly burned” body in a car in a remote part of Hawaii’s Big Island over the weekend.

Ammon Kaipo Spencer Stanley, 35, was being held on $1.01 million bail. Stanton Oshiro, the court-appointment attorney listed for Stanley in court records, didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment Tuesday.

On Saturday, patrol officers responded to a report of a vehicle that had been set on fire with a body inside in the Puna district, the Hawaii Police Department said in a statement.

Officers found the vehicle in the bushes about 100 feet (30.48 meters) from the road.

An investigation found that a man had been shot while seated in his car and that a woman was also shot but managed to escape, police said.

Stanley drove the victim’s car, with the dead body inside, from the Orchidland Estates subdivision about 6 miles (9.65 kilometers) to the Hawaiian Paradise Park subdivision, where the car was set on fire, Lt. Rio Amon-Wilkins said.

An autopsy for the man was scheduled for Tuesday, police said.