UPDATE: 5:15 p.m.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department released Scott Hannon at 12:31 p.m. Hawaii time today.
The department cited California Penal Code Section 849(b), which authorizes officers to release arrested person from custody due to insufficient grounds to file a complaint against that person.
The other suspect, 23-year-old Juan Baron, remains in custody awaiting extradition, Los Angeles police said.
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Two men arrested in California suspected of murdering a 73-year-old Hawaii Loa Ridge man were allegedly living in the victim’s house and on his money until “neighbors complained about a decaying smell” coming from the victim’s home, the Los Angeles Police Department said.
Authorities arrested Juan Tejedor Baron, 23, and Scott Hannon, 34, Wednesday afternoon.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office has yet to release the victim’s name. Honolulu police believe the victim was the homeowner. City property records show the Gary L. Ruby Trust as the owner of the three-bedroom, three-bathroom home at 357 Lelekepue Place.
LAPD’s Gang and Narcotics Division and the U.S. Marshals Task Force arrested Baron on a Greyhound bus in Anaheim, Calif., bound for Mexico just before 2:20 p.m. Hawaii time Wednesday, according to a news release.
CrimeStoppers Honolulu said he was found hiding in a crawl space under a bench seat at the rear of the bus. LAPD described Baron as a Honolulu resident.
LAPD and the Marshals Task Force also arrested Hannon, of Billerica, Mass., in Inglewood around 3:45 p.m. Hawaii time.
Honolulu police said Baron and the 73-year-old man were involved in an intimate relationship.
In a news release today, LAPD said, “It is alleged that after the murder, the two suspects were living in the victim’s house and on the victim’s money until the neighbors complained about a decaying smell from the victim’s location.”
Patrol officers visited the home located in an affluent neighborhood in East Honolulu Monday morning to conduct a welfare check on Ruby in response to a family member’s request but no one was home at the time. That afternoon, detectives from the Missing Persons Detail went to the residence and were met by Baron who claimed to live at the home. Detectives reported they could not find Ruby.
The next day, police found Ruby’s decomposed body inside a stand-alone tub filled with a concrete mixture with a layer of coffee on top. Homicide Lt. Deena Thoemmes has said the coffee was likely used to mask the odor of decomposition.