Man, 26, charged in fatal stabbing
Star-Bulletin staff
Prosecutors have charged a 26-year-old man with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of a Honolulu man.
Shortly before 3:11 a.m. Tuesday, Taniera Takentarawa was on the fishing vessel Vui Vui with five other crew members docked at Pier 36 off Nimitz Highway. Police said the men were drinking on the boat, when 34-year-old Bright Obed came on board and drank a beer.
According to court documents, Takentarawa allegedly struck Obed on the head with a long, wooden board, and later sliced him in the neck with a knife and stabbed him in the back three times.
When police arrived, Takentarawa raised his hands and placed them behind his head. When asked what happened, he said, "I don't know. I fight him, I kill him," court documents stated.
Obed was found face down at the boat's entrance without a shirt, his pants pulled down to his ankles and his underwear ripped.
Takentarawa is not a U.S. citizen and is from Christmas Island in the Republic of Kiribati. Prosecutors believed him to be a flight risk because he often goes out to sea; his bail was set at $150,000.