The Pearl Harbor sailor accused of raping and murdering his Singapore-born wife and stabbing to death his mother-in-law will face a pretrial hearing Sept. 10. Hearing set for sailor
accused of killing wife
and mother-in-lawBy Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.comThe Article 32 hearing, similar to a civilian preliminary hearing, for Petty Officer 2nd Class David Allen DeArmond, assigned to the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, will take place at Pearl Harbor's trial services center.
DeArmond, 33, is charged with striking his wife Zaleha DeArmond, 31, on the head with an iron skillet. The Navy said she was raped and her mother, Saniah Binte Abdul Ghani, 66, was stabbed repeatedly with a knife.
The bodies of the two women were found on the second story of the couple's home in the Navy Hokulani housing complex June 10.
DeArmond had turned himself in and told authorities that an emergency had taken place at his home, located outside Pearl Harbor's Nimitz Gate.
DeArmond could face the death penalty pending the outcome of the Article 32 hearing. Under military law, murder can be a capital offense, depending on the recommendation of the judge presiding over the hearing.
Besides rape and murder, DeArmond also is charged with abusing his wife's body and impeding the criminal investigation by destroying, moving and tampering with the evidence in the couple's naval housing on Leal Place.
Zaleha DeArmond's family members have said they thought she wanted to leave her husband because he was abusive. She met DeArmond in San Diego while on a trip and the two were married in 1996.
Anisah Mohd, Zaleha DeArmond's sister, said her family in Singapore still hopes to gain custody of the couple's three children -- Danny, 5, Courtney, 3, and Brandon, 2.
The children are in the care of a Navy family.
"Actually they do have family who greatly care for them," she said, "but due to the distance and difference in culture between Hawaii and Singapore, things do look difficult."