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Keehi murder suspect
held without bail

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Star-Bulletin staff

A man accused of beating another man to death with a baseball bat at Keehi Lagoon Park will be held without bail.

Sapatumoeese Maluia, 54, had been held on $200,000 bail since his arrest following the Oct. 12 beating of an acquaintance, Feao Tupuola Jr., 48. But Circuit Judge Richard Perkin ruled yesterday there would be no bail.

Deputy Prosecutor Chris Van Marter argued that Maluia was dangerous, based on his past conviction for a double murder and the recent murder charge.

Maluia has a history of "essentially exploding with rage," and presents a danger to people around him, including his friends, Van Marter said. Maluia has been a licensed real estate agent for the past six years and an independent contractor for Savio Realty, said deputy public defender Todd Eddins, who argued that his client was not a flight risk, nor a danger.

Defendants are presumed a flight risk if they are facing a life without parole sentence, Eddins said. Maluia, already convicted of murdering his girlfriend and her grandmother in March 1973, automatically faces the enhanced sentencing of life without parole if he is convicted in Tupuola's death.