Plea deal frees man
guilty of 2-year-old's
1985 death

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By Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.com

A man who pleaded no contest to manslaughter for recklessly causing the death of his 22-month-old stepdaughter 16 years ago was freed yesterday after being given credit for time already served.

Vern E. King, 43, had been incarcerated for more than six months pending trial on a second-degree murder charge but has been on supervised release since changing his plea Sept. 13.

Circuit Judge Karen Ahn accepted a plea agreement yesterday that required King to serve no further jail time and placed him on five years' probation. She also ordered a $250 fine.

Back in 1985, manslaughter was punishable by a maximum 10 years' imprisonment or five years' probation.

King had gone to trial in August on a charge of second-degree murder, but the judge declared a mistrial after jurors declared they were deadlocked after eight hours of deliberations.

The state contended King suffocated his stepdaughter the night of May 8, 1985, after her mother, Beverly Kelly, left on an errand. Prosecutors suggested King became angry because the child vomited after he fed her dinner. Kelly returned about 40 minutes later and found her daughter, Kareatha Gray, lying unconscious on her bed. The child died an hour later at Tripler Army Medical Center.

King had denied doing anything to harm his stepdaughter. He testified she was fine when he put her to bed.

Medical examiners could not determine in 1985 the manner of the girl's death. The case was closed, still unresolved, in 1990. Naval investigators reviewed the case again in 1995, and the investigation shifted to King. They turned their findings over to city prosecutors, and an Oahu Grand Jury indicted King in December 1996 on a charge of second-degree murder.

King, who was no longer living in Hawaii by the time he was indicted, was not located until September 1997 and was placed on supervised release pending trial. His case did not come to trial until this year.

In March, less than a month before his trial was to begin, he fled from his supervised release program. He subsequently was arrested and jailed until the August trial.