A 21-year-old Kalihi man, charged with stabbing a 20-year-old Aiea man to death Friday night, told police he chased the man because the victim threw bottles at him and his cousins, according to a court document.
Vainuupo Tosoga is being held in lieu of $150,000 bail after he was charged Saturday with second-degree murder in the death of Jason Oliveros. The victim was stabbed several times.
Tosoga entered a plea of not guilty at his initial appearance in Honolulu District Court on Monday morning.
In a police affidavit filed in court, police said they were called to the area near Halona and Houghtailing streets at 3 a.m. Friday to investigate a report of "a group of shirtless males chasing one shirtless male."
Police found Oliveros lying on the side of the road. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 3:40 a.m.
A police officer at the scene said he saw the suspect "shirtless, sweating, breathing heavily with bloody hands, leg and shoulder" at the intersection of Mookaula and Moowa streets, across the H-1 freeway from where the victim’s body was found, the court document said.
The suspect was wearing red shorts — matching the description a witness earlier gave of a man who had fled Halona Street following a fight.
Three witnesses identified the suspect as one of the men chasing the victim.
The suspect also told police that he was chasing a man by the freeway because "the male threw bottles at him and his cousins."
Tosoga was arrested at 4:29 a.m. at Mookaula and Moowa streets.
Police also arrested a 19-year-old Kalihi man Friday on suspicion of second-degree murder, but he was released Saturday pending further investigation. Both Tosoga and the 19-year-old suspect gave police the same Waiakamilo Street home address — just a few blocks north of the crime scene.
