HONOLULU (AP) — The killings of three men on Hawaii's Big Island were “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel," prosecutors said in court documents that also seek a tougher sentence because the victims were older than 60.
Jacob Baker, 36, who is charged with murder in the deaths of two 69-year-old men and one 79-year-old man, appeared in court Monday where a judge granted a defense request for Baker to undergo a mental fitness examination.
According
to a criminal complaint, the killings were of “exceptional depravity.”
Robert Shine, 69, was found dead last week submerged in a cement pond, according to police. The body of a 79-year-old man was discovered a day later a few hundred feet away.
And later that day, police found 69-year-old John Carse dead at a property 19 miles (31 kilometers) from where the other two bodies were located.
Police hadn't released the name of the 79-year-old man, but prosecutors identified him in the criminal complaint as Frederick Morse. Friends said they knew him as “Chitta.”
If convicted and if a jury agrees that Baker knew the victims were older men, or that the killings were especially heinous, he would face a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility for parole. Without the enhancement, parole would be possible.
Police apprehended Baker last week, following a manhunt of the vast island, where the three victims were found in the remote and mostly rural Puna community known for its jungle-like landscape and free-spirited residents.
The killings left residents on edge in the community set amid lush jungle and barren lava fields where people seeking to live off-grid commonly trade work for lodging.
Disturbing details of the investigation are detailed in a probable cause document, including that Morse was found dead in his bed with several severed fingers. Shine was found with fractured ribs and other injuries and had been strangled before he was put in a concrete fishpond, where he was found face-down in water. Carse was found face-down in dirt under corrugated roofing material and an autopsy found cuts to his face, severed neck muscles, a broken jaw and other injuries, the document said.
A woman told police she had driven Baker to a store in Hilo, east Hawaii's biggest town, before the men were found, and while driving back, he showed her a newly purchased knife and said he would “shank all the rapists in Pahoa and anyone who messed with him,” according to the document. Baker "reportedly spoke about the island being full of rapists and pedophiles and stated that he wanted to ‘chop them up with machetes.’”
She described him as erratic, aggressive and hyperverbal, police said, and that he referred to himself using the Spanish word for hitman. Police said they determined he also purchased two brass knuckles.
She then took him to a tattoo shop, where police said Baker got a tattoo under his left eye.
Baker is ordered held without bail. A report on his mental fitness examination is due Aug 4. A court hearing is scheduled Aug. 11.
