Drug dealer
pleads not guilty
in 3 killings

Styran Rivera faces life without
possibility of parole if convicted

Star-Bulletin staff

A North Shore drug dealer waived indictment and pleaded not guilty today to murder charges in connection with three missing men presumed dead.

He also pleaded not guilty to second-degree assault in an unrelated case.

Prosecutors charged Styran Rivera, 36, with three counts of second-degree murder, one count of first-degree murder and hindering prosecution.

Rivera faces life without possibility of parole if convicted of the first-degree murder charge, which stems from having more than one victim.

He will go to trial the week of March 30 with two co-defendants.

Circuit Court Judge Richard Perkins granted the state's request that Rivera be held without bail.

He is already in federal custody, being held without bail, while awaiting sentencing on federal drug charges.

Rivera is charged with the murders of Steve Tozon, Tranquilino Bati Jr. and Paris France. Court affidavits show another man, Benjamin Tandal, shot Tozon and Bati outside Rivera's home in June 1997.

Tandal, 20, and Edward Vidal Jr., 33, both of Waialua, were indicted earlier on second-degree murder charges in connection with Tozon and Bati's death.

Rivera is to be sentenced March 30 on federal charges. He faces a minimum of 47 months in prison for selling drugs to undercover officers in June.