A Kawaihae man will remain in custody while he awaits charges on a litany of drug and firearms charges.
A Kawaihae man will remain in custody while he awaits charges on a litany of drug and firearms charges.
Third Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Strance revoked Martin Frank Booth’s bail after listening to testimony from police officers about statements Booth made to them during an investigation at the end of last year. Bail had been set at $500,000.
Two officers took the stand Monday to talk about the investigation, which included finding a rifle at Booth’s home and two guns in his car.
“I did ask Mr. Booth why he needed the gun,” Officer John McCarron said. “He responded, ‘I knew you guys were looking for me.’”
McCarron said he asked Booth if he planned to shoot any police officers. No, Booth said, because the officers’ families didn’t deserve for that to happen.
“‘I’d shoot in the air and then you could shoot me,’” McCarron said Booth told him.
Booth also told officers he was not taking medication prescribed to him for a mental health condition because it made him feel drowsy.
Officer Scotty Aloy testified Booth admitted during an interview to selling methamphetamine, but said that drug found in his home was not something he was selling because he did not conduct the sales at the home. Several people came to Booth’s house while police were executing a search warrant there. Those people told other officers they had come to purchase drugs.
Booth had previously been convicted of several federal drug distribution and conspiracy charges, as well as burglary and theft in Washington and Alaska, an investigator from the Prosecuting Attorney’s office said.
A social worker also testified Booth had tested positive for drugs — meth and marijuana — at his first meeting with the intake service personnel.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Linda Walton said Booth was “an extreme flight risk and extreme danger to the public.”
Strance said the evidence that Booth continued to use drugs and failed to maintain contact was “significant” in light of other charges he is facing, and that Booth does pose a “risk of harm to himself or others.”
Booth is facing charges of meth trafficking, eight counts of promoting dangerous drugs, promoting controlled substances near a school, three counts of promoting detrimental drugs, three counts of possessing drug paraphernalia, six firearm offenses and terroristic threatening.
Email Erin Miller at emiller@westhawaiitoday.com.