Police have no motive in transvestite’s death
The suspect indicted in the man's killing might have lived with him in the same car
WAILUKU » The stabbing death of a transvestite last month under a highway overpass in Makiki was not a hate crime, Honolulu police Detective Theodore Coons said Thursday.
Coons said that while the motive is still not known, the victim, Jason L. Namauu, and his alleged assailant, Joel Chris Allen, knew each other and appeared to have been living in the same car.
Namauu, 35, a former Maui resident, was allegedly stabbed repeatedly by Allen in the car near Cartwright Neighborhood Park in Makiki at about 6:30 p.m. July 17.
Allen fled the vehicle after witnesses tried to stop the assault, police said.
Police arrested Allen later in the parking lot at Times Super Market.
Allen, held in lieu of $150,000 bail, was indicted July 22 by an Oahu grand jury on a charge of second-degree murder.
Allen has been convicted of auto theft, second-degree theft and three third-degree assaults, including one of a police officer.
Namauu was known as "Jay" to his friends and relatives on Maui and "Jaylynn" to those who knew him as a transvestite in Honolulu.
Namauu, who attended Baldwin High School but never graduated, lived with his parents in Kihei until his early 20s and enjoyed swimming at Makena Landing and Big Beach in South Maui, said his sister-in-law Crystal Namauu.
"As far as I know, he really had a good heart. He was a sociable person. He was a good person," she said.
"People tease him because of what he was. He would just tell you straight what he thinks, but he wouldn't let it bother him."
She said she hardly saw Namauu when he moved to Lahaina and "started getting more and more into the world he wanted to be in."
Namauu forged a check for $984 from a condominium rental company on Maui in September 1996.
He was placed on probation for five years but violated his probation by failing to report to his probation officer and failing to obtain a substance abuse assessment.
Namauu's probation was revoked, and he eventually was sentenced in March 2002 to five years in prison with a minimum of 20 months' incarceration.
After being released from prison, he was convicted of two misdemeanors, including a prostitution conviction in April.
George Namauu Jr. said he was unaware his brother had been released from prison in 2006 and was living in Honolulu, until a police officer came to his door last month to tell him his brother had been killed.
He said his mother wrote to Jay in prison but had her letters returned every time.
"He never contacted nobody. He just wanted to do his own thing," he said. "From an early age he was kind of on the feminine side. ... They are human like us. He was my brother."
The family was scheduled to hold a celebration of life ceremony this morning at Makena Landing.
