Question: Whatever happened to the case involving David Orpin, accused of beating another homeless man to death in the parking lot of a Catholic church in Manoa last year?
Answer: David Orpin, 60, is free on bail pending a jury trial for murder scheduled to begin the week of Nov. 21 before Circuit Judge Glenn Kim, the city prosecutor’s office said.
Orpin was charged with second-degree murder in the beating death of Arthur Martinez, 70, in the parking lot of the St. Pius X Catholic Church in Manoa on either Oct. 27 or Oct. 28, 2010.
Homeless people had been known to sleep on the church grounds but no problems had been reported before Martinez’s death.
Police said Orpin walked to the Honolulu Police Department’s main station on South Beretania Street about 1:40 a.m. on Oct. 28 and said he might have killed a man in a church parking lot in Manoa.
When officers went to St. Pius on Lowrey Avenue, they found a man’s body in the back parking lot. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene about 2:32 a.m.
Police said the victim may have been beaten about five hours before Orpin approached officers. The Department of the Medical Examiner declared Martinez died of head injuries from blunt force trauma.
Orpin was charged with second-degree murder.
Court records show that in February, Orpin was released on $100,000 bail, posted by friend Gaye Chan.
Chan would not comment Tuesday but she had previously told the Star-Advertiser that Orpin is a friend who volunteered to help with an art project known as Eating in Public. Chan is chairwoman of the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s department of art and art history.
The project involved the creation of wire recycling bins that were part of an art project and also placed throughout Oahu. Orpin made about 100 of the bins, Chan said.
Chan and others Orpin has befriended on the UHcampus described him as gentle and responsible, and that the incident at St. Pius may have occurred as an act of self-defense or occurred after he had been provoked.
Chan described him as “very private” and eccentric, but also “really into detail and perfection.”
He appears to have lived in Manoa Valley for years, she said, and she saw him occasionally reading at UH’s Sinclair Library.
Chan said she worried about Orpin and how he might fare in court.
Efforts to contact defense attorney Alen Kaneshiro, who represents Orpin, were unsuccessful.
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This update was written by Gordon Y.K. Pang. Suggest a topic for “Whatever Happened To …” by writing Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-210, Honolulu 96813; call 529-4747; or email cityeditors@staradvertiser.com.
