Toby Stangel, accused of murder and other charges in a 2011 shooting spree, lost his bids Wednesday for release from jail under his father’s supervision pending trial and for a reduction of his $5 million bail.
Circuit Judge Glenn Kim instead granted the prosecutor’s request to revoke bail and ordered Stangel to remain in custody without the opportunity for pretrial release.
Stangel, 29, is awaiting trial for murder, multiple counts of attempted murder and other charges stemming from a 17-minute shooting spree on Oahu roadways on June 3, 2011, that left one motorist dead and two others wounded.
His trial is scheduled for October.
City Deputy Prosecutor Dwight Nadamoto asked Kim to revoke Stangel’s bail due to the serious risk of flight he poses because of the potential penalties he faces. Three of Stangel’s charges are for attempted first-degree murder, which each carry mandatory life prison terms without the opportunity for parole.
Nadamoto said a Nevada state driver’s license was among the items police seized when they arrested Stangel.
He said Stangel has the capacity to say he will abide by the terms and conditions of bail or supervised release yet do just the opposite, according to the mental health experts appointed by the court to assess his fitness to stand trial.
Defense lawyer Edward Aquino said Stangel had a Nevada driver’s license because he lived there briefly. But he said Stangel is a Hawaii resident, was born and raised here and that all of his family and community ties are here.
Aquino said Stangel proved his ability to abide by court-imposed conditions of release when he completed a period of deferral for his 2004 no-contest plea to a firearm charge.
A state judge granted Stangel early release and dismissed the charge in 2007 after he had completed only half of his five-year period of deferral and even though he was convicted of drunken driving and criminal property damage during the years he was under court supervision.
Police said Stangel fatally shot Tammy Nguyen, 54, at an intersection in Kaimuki as the mother of 10 sat behind the wheel of her van waiting for the traffic light to change. They said Stangel then drove his car onto the H-1 freeway, where he shot and injured a 24-year-old woman who was driving a pickup truck on the freeway through Kalihi; and shot a 38-year-old man who slowed down to see what was going on.
Stangel then fired at two police officers conducting a traffic stop on Moanalua Freeway near the Aiea offramp, police said. The officers later found Stangel in his car stopped farther west on the H-1 freeway.
