Former Delaware death row inmate Isaiah McCoy targeted a man for robbery in Waikiki because the man was wearing an expensive wristwatch, Deputy Prosecutor David Van Acker told a state judge Thursday.
Van Acker said this after an Oahu grand jury returned an indictment charging McCoy, 30, and Joshua Pulliam, 33, with second-degree
robbery.
Honolulu police arrested McCoy and Pulliam at the Ramada Plaza by Wyndham Waikiki on Ala Moana Boulevard early Tuesday. They
released McCoy on Wednesday night after he posted $20,000 bail. Pulliam remained in custody on $11,000 bail and went to court Thursday morning.
Circuit Judge Shirley Kawamura increased bail for both men to $100,000 after they were indicted.
Van Acker had asked Kawamura to increase bail for both men to $150,000
because of the circumstances of the crime.
“This is not a garden-
variety robbery in the second degree. This is a vicious and extremely violent robbery,” Van Acker said.
He told Kawamura that the defendants brutally beat the victim, fracturing the 40-year-old man’s wrist, caused a significant cut to his chin, gave him a black eye and chipped one of his teeth. He said the type of watch the victim was wearing is difficult to remove but that the defendants appeared to know what they were doing and removed it quickly.
Van Acker said McCoy and Pulliam fled in a vehicle and eluded police who tried to pull them over. He said police located the vehicle a short time later after it was involved in a collision, and received information that the robbers entered Ramada Plaza.
He said police located McCoy and Pulliam in the stairwell of the hotel where the victim and an off-duty police officer who witnessed the robbery positively identified them. He said both defendants were sweating profusely, shirtless and wearing their shorts inside-out. He said a Ramada employee found the watch in an awning outside the hotel.
Van Acker said Pulliam has a warrant to be extradited to Delaware if he gets within 500 miles of that state. He said Pulliam told police he has been in Hawaii for two weeks. Van Acker said McCoy told police he has a job and lives in Los Angeles.
McCoy was awaiting execution in Delaware when his conviction for a drug-related murder was overturned and he was acquitted on retrial. McCoy moved to Hawaii and was charged with sex trafficking. Federal prosecutors were forced to drop their case against McCoy after they learned that the case agent withheld evidence and lied.