One of two cousins awaiting trial in state court for a Hawaii island murder that was recorded on video by the victim’s home surveillance system is in federal custody on a counterfeiting conspiracy charge.
Claude Keone Krause pleaded not guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court to a charge of counterfeit conspiracy. Federal authorities took him into custody last week, and he remains at the federal detention center pending trial next month.
Claude Krause, 31, and Kawena Krause, 19, both of Kurtistown, are charged with the Dec. 28 murder of Dante Peter Gilman, 44. They were arrested in January.
Hawaii County police recovered video of the slaying from Gilman’s Hawaiian Acres home. They said the video shows Claude Krause shooting Gilman with a rifle and Kawena Krause choking Gilman until Gilman’s body goes limp.
Police recovered Gilman’s body in January on the side of a secluded road in the Waiakea Forest Reserve.
The Krauses are scheduled to stand trial for Gilman’s murder in October.
Both were being held without bail at Hawaii Community Correctional Center until Claude Krause’s transfer to the federal facility.
A federal grand jury last month charged Claude Krause, Kainoa Andaya-Visser, Ronson Lee Matsuo, Justin S. Okazaki-Shimahara and Corey Faulkner with conspiracy and passing counterfeit checks in February 2012.
According to the indictment, Krause gave Andaya-Visser his First Hawaiian Bank account number. Andaya-Visser used it to produce counterfeit checks which Andaya-Visser, Matsuo, Okazaki-Shimahara and Faulkner cashed at KTA Super Stores in Hilo and Waimea, the indictment says.
Ivan Van Leer, Krause’s lawyer in the murder case, said he learned from another lawyer that federal authorities had taken custody of Krause.
Van Leer said Krause’s incarceration in Honolulu is hampering their efforts to prepare for the October murder trial in Hilo. He said he is able to talk to Krause by telephone but that "there are some things that have to be said face to face."
