A 49-year-old homeless woman found slain early Friday morning in downtown Hilo had a 2-inch laceration to the left side of her neck and may have been sexually assaulted, according to court documents filed by police.
Today, Hilo District Judge Harry Freitas ordered a mental examination for the suspect in the case, 35-year-old Curtis Quantez Hodges of Shiloh, Ill. Hodges is charged with second-degree murder in the slaying of the woman, identified by police as Danielle Caron.
Prosecutors filed a notion to have Hodges, who’s bail had been set at $500,000, to be held with no bail.
“We would notice our objection to that motion and submit (to the court’s judgment),” said Stanton Oshiro, Hodges’ court-appointed attorney.
Freitas granted the state’s request to have Hodges held without bail and ordered Hodges to return to court at at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 22.
According to court documents, a 60-year-old man, Clayton Kahunanui, reported to police at 12:42 a.m. Friday he had found the woman’s body with a laceration to the left side of her neck in an alcove of 76 Kamehameha Avenue, fronting the Koehnen Building.
The left side of the neck is where the carotid artery is located.
Documents state the woman’s body was found lying face up and her body in a position “consistent with sexual assault.”
Documents state police reviewed several surveillance videos of the area, and noted the same dark-complected man loitering in the area, leaving and returning periodically starting at about 9:30 p.m. Thursday.
Video depicts the man, who was wearing a dark T-shirt that read “Shock the Nation” and long black basketball shorts with four horizontal pink stripes stacked in a vertical pattern running along the front of the right leg, following the woman into the alcove and leaving after eight minutes.
Police later arrested Hodges at Hilo Bay Hostel. Documents state he was seated in a common area of the hostel wearing a ripped black tank top with black basketball shorts matching the same description as the ones worn by the man in the videos. Hodges had “facial swelling in the area of his lips,” according to documents.
A black T-shirt with “Shock the Nation” was found draped over a bedpost in the room where Hodges was staying, documents state.
According to the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat, Hodges has been charged several times with battery in St. Clair County, Ill. Other media outlets have reported Hodges is a registered sex offender, but checks of the Illinois and national sex offender registries by the Tribune-Herald failed to verify those reports.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
