StarBulletin.com

2 men indicted in killing over drugs and money


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POSTED: Friday, April 23, 2010

City prosecutors say the two men charged with killing 24-year-old Jamil Khan in a dispute over a drug debt and their indoor marijuana-growing operation cut Khan's body into pieces before disposing it in the trash.

“;They killed him by beating him with a hammer,”; said Keith Seto, deputy city prosecutor.

“;After he was dead they dragged him to the upstairs bathroom where they essentially dismembered him—cutting off his arms, his legs and his head,”; Seto said.

An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment yesterday charging Joshua Williams, 25, and Michael Connolly, 24, with second-degree murder. Williams and Khan were classmates at Mililani High School.

Khan's family told police they last saw him on April 7, the date the indictment says Williams and Connolly killed him. A police affidavit says Williams told an acquaintance that Williams and Connolly beat Khan unconscious and then cut his throat. Khan's body has not been found.

The indictment also says that because the murder was “;especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity,”; Williams and Connolly face life prison terms without the opportunity for parole if found guilty. The normal penalty for second-degree murder is life in prison with the opportunity for parole.

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Williams also faces commercial marijuana promotion, arson, auto theft, methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia possession charges.

Seto said after the two defendants killed Khan, they took his vehicle to Waipahu where they set it on fire.

Police found the burned vehicle April 14. And when they searched the Makakilo home where they believe the victim and suspects conducted their marijuana-growing operation, they found more than 200 marijuana plants and marijuana-growing paraphernalia, Seto said.

Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Takata asked Circuit Judge Richard Perkins yesterday to revoke Williams' and Connolly's bail or at least raise it to $10 million.

Perkins agreed to increase bail for each defendant to $2 million from $1 million.

Takata said he will ask for a separate hearing on an order to keep the defendants in custody without the opportunity for bail pending trial.