A state judge reinstated Isaiah McCoy’s eligibility for release with added conditions Tuesday pending a trial for robbery but refused the former death row inmate’s request to reduce his $100,000 bail.
Circuit Judge Todd Eddins told him, “I see today where you are perhaps in a better frame of mind. You are conducting yourself as you did previously in our court matters, in a professional, respectful way, which leads me to believe you would not defy court orders.”
Eddins revoked McCoy’s bail Oct. 10 after state sheriff deputies arrested him at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport three days earlier attempting to board a commercial flight to Los Angeles. McCoy, 32, had a one-way ticket and $4,520.
He was free on $100,000 bail at the time of his arrest. One of the standard conditions of bail is to remain in the jurisdiction unless granted permission to leave by the court. Eddins had not granted him permission.
McCoy said he intended to return by his next court date. He said he would not have attempted to travel to Los Angeles to see his doctor and do some business related to his community activism work had his bail bondsman, Transportation Security Administration officials at the airport and the state sheriff deputy who helped him get through security told him that he could not leave.
At the Oct. 10 hearing, Eddins had McCoy removed from the courtroom as McCoy was delivering a verbal tirade accusing the prosecutor of being racially motivated and Eddins of siding with the state. Even after McCoy was no longer in the courtroom, he could be heard yelling on his way to the cellblock accusing Eddins of being racist.
McCoy was more subdued at Tuesday’s hearing. He is representing himself against the robbery charge, and in his papers asking Eddins to reinstate bail, McCoy, referring to himself in the third person, said, “The defendant would first like to apologize to the Circuit Court for the level of passion in his outburst.”
Eddins told McCoy, “I certainly accept your explanation, your apology or justification for your actions. They were contemptuous.”
If McCoy is able to again post $100,000 bail, he will have to abide by conditions not required of him the first time. He will have a 9 p.m.-
to-6 a.m. curfew, must report regularly to the court’s Intake Services Center, submit to GPS monitoring and stay out of Waikiki. He is accused of beating a man in Waikiki last month and stealing the man’s $20,000 watch.
He was sentenced in Delaware to death after being found guilty of a drug-related murder but was released after he was acquitted on retrial.