By JOHN BURNETT
By JOHN BURNETT
Tribune-Herald staff writer
A retired Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective will face trial in Kona for allegedly killing his wife five-and-a-half years ago.
Daniel DeJarnette, 59, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder Tuesday before Kona Circuit Judge Ronald Ibarra, who set trial for Oct. 30 at 9 a.m.
“I was initially assigned to this case in January 2012,” said Deputy Prosecutor Linda Walton. “So my
investigator and I did some additional investigation, including sending some additional materials off for DNA testing.”
On Monday, a Kona grand jury indicted DeJarnette for the Nov. 12, 2006, death of 56-year-old Yu DeJarnette. A bench warrant set his bail at $200,000. DeJarnette was arrested at 6:42 p.m. Monday evening at his home on Paradise Parkway.
Ibarra maintained DeJarnette’s bail at Tuesday’s arraignment. DeJarnette remains in custody at Hawaii Community Correctional Center.
Ka‘u patrol officers responded to a 9:20 a.m. call the morning of Nov. 12, 2006, of a home accident at the Paradise Parkway residence. Police said Yu DeJarnette was found lying unresponsive with head injuries at the bottom of a lava embankment near the home. The woman was taken to Hilo Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.
Hilo Patrol Capt. Robert Wagner, then a lieutenant who worked on the case, told the Tribune-Herald in November 2006 that DeJarnette told police that his wife had fallen. The officer who responded to the scene believed something was fishy, however.
“When the officer got there, he felt something was unusual at the scene, that it didn’t add up to everything he was seeing,” Wagner said at that time.
Wagner declined to elaborate on what, exactly, the officer saw that made him doubt DeJarnette’s account of things, but added that “it appears to me he (the officer) was right.”
DeJarnette was arrested two days after his wife’s death after an autopsy found that Yu DeJarnette had died of head injuries not consistent with an accidental fall. He was later released pending further investigation.
Asked Tuesday if authorities believe that Yu DeJarnette had been beaten and if a murder weapon had been found, Walton replied: “I don’t believe I’m free to comment at this stage.”
Calls to Wagner and to Kona Criminal Investigations Section on Tuesday were not returned in time for this story.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.