Trial is set for an Illinois man accused of stabbing a 49-year-old woman to death in August in downtown Hilo.
Trial is set for an Illinois man accused of stabbing a 49-year-old woman to death in August in downtown Hilo.
Curtis Q. Hodges pleaded not guilty Monday to second-degree murder in the slaying of Danielle Caron, whose body was found shortly after midnight Aug. 14 in front of the Koehnen Building on Kamehameha Avenue. Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura ordered the Shiloh, Ill., man to appear for trial at 9 a.m. March 7.
On Oct. 13, Hodges was found fit to stand trial by Hilo District Judge Barbara Takase, based on the reports of psychiatrists Drs. Andrew Bisset and Henry Wang and psychologist Dr. Frederic Manke.
Police and media accounts described Caron as homeless, a characterization objected to by her daughter, Chloe. Caron lived at a Pahoa address not long before the homicide occurred.
According to court documents, a man later identified by police as Hodges was seen on surveillance video following Caron into an alcove fronting the Koehnen Building, and leaving the alcove eight minutes later.
Police arrested Hodges at Hilo Bay Hostel later the same day. 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.
Hodges appeared to have swollen lips in a police mugshot taken after his arrest.
Police Capt. Robert Wagner of the Hilo Criminal Investigation Division told the Tribune-Herald in late August that Hodges’ clothes were sent to a laboratory for DNA testing. He said police recovered “what appeared to be blood on a clothing item that we do believe the suspect wore at the time of the incident.”
According to the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat, Hodges has been charged several times with battery in St. Clair County, Ill. Other media outlets reported Hodges is a registered sex offender, but checks of the Illinois and national sex offender registries by the Tribune-Herald failed to verify that.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.