Honolulu police say the joint local-federal prostitution sting operation that targeted former Delaware death row inmate Isaiah McCoy last week was part of an investigation into last September’s fatal shooting outside a Waikiki nightclub.
Police arrested McCoy, 28, on Jan. 3 at the DoubleTree Hotel Alana on Ala Moana Boulevard on two counts of promoting prostitution. They arrested Tyanna Lam, 22, and McCoy’s wife, Schofield Barracks soldier Tawana Roberts, 35, for prostitution.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment the following day charging McCoy and Roberts with sex trafficking by force, threats, fraud or coercion. The couple remains in custody pending bail hearings in U.S. District Court next week.
Lam is being prosecuted for prostitution in state court.
Police say the investigation into a Sept. 16 shooting outside Club Alley Cat on Kuhio Avenue that killed one person and injured two others uncovered information that “individuals involved and their associates were part of a mainland ‘Blood’ gang … participating in criminal activity” involving drugs, weapons and promoting prostitution.
They do not say McCoy was involved in the shooting or is an associate of anyone who was involved. However, they say according to information later provided by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security special agent, McCoy had been actively pimping prostitutes in Hawaii as recently as Dec. 27.
McCoy is not charged with any crimes in connection with the September shooting. Federal prosecutors, however, say in their request to keep McCoy in custody with no opportunity for release on bail or bond pending trial in March, that McCoy admits to having been a member of the Bloods, has a history of violence and has threatened a witness in the shooting case.
Police say the Strategic Enforcement Detail of the Honolulu Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division is investigating the September shooting. They say because of the high profile nature of the case, agents from Homeland Security and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as officers from HPD’s Vice Division Morals Detail and Criminal Intelligence Unit, are assisting.
Maleko Remlinger, 23, of Kaneohe, died of gunshot wounds he suffered outside Club Alley Cat on Sept. 16. Two other men were injured by the seven to 10 gunshots that witnesses reported hearing and seeing.
Honolulu police arrested Jordan A. Smith, 18, in a Young Street apartment in Pawaa the following day. They said a witness to the shooting recognized Smith as the same person police had stopped outside Club Alley Cat two days earlier.
Smith is charged with attempted first-degree murder, second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, using a semiautomatic firearm to commit the crimes, and carrying a firearm without a permit. He remains in custody, unable to post $1 million bail, pending trial next month.
When police arrested Smith, McCoy and another man were also in the apartment. They arrested McCoy on a contempt warrant for failing to show up in traffic court for a speeding violation then released him.
McCoy was sentenced to death in 2012 after a jury in Delaware found him guilty of a drug-related murder. After the Delaware Supreme Court overturned the conviction and sentence, a judge in January found him not guilty in the retrial and set McCoy free.
Federal prosecutors say McCoy went to live with his wife at Schofield Barracks following his release but was recently barred from the Army base and cannot return.
