The 81-year-old woman who was stabbed to death in the driveway of her Hilo home Saturday morning was already dead when officers arrived on scene, according to court documents filed by police.
The woman, Lola Loebl, was “lying supine on the driveway” of her Waiakea Homestead Houselots home “with severe lacerations to her face and mouth” and “blood pooling on the ground to the left side of her head,” the documents state.
The reporting party, a 38-year-old woman, told officers she witnessed the stabbing and that the suspect, 30-year-old Keoni Peter Tosie Brown, was on the adjacent property.
The witness said that at about 7:15 a.m., she was at home across Olu Street and heard someone yelling, “Ahhh, help!” She told officers that when she came outside, she saw the victim’s dog running toward her.
The witness saw Loebl raise her arms in an attempt to defend herself, but Brown wrapped his free arm around the woman, restraining her as he stabbed her repeatedly in the mouth, according to the documents.
Brown allegedly continued to hold on to Loebl’s body as she collapsed to the driveway.
The witness told police she ran toward Brown to confront him, but he fled toward the garage next door. She said the knife remained lodged in Loebl’s mouth as Brown ran away, the documents state.
After calling 911, the witness said she went back across the street to Loebl’s property, where she reportedly encountered Brown again. Brown allegedly had retrieved the knife from Loebl’s mouth and made stabbing motions toward the victim while mouthing the words, “What, bitch? What, bitch?”
The witness also told police Brown had changed clothes since the original encounter, from a red shirt and black shorts to shirtless with green camouflage shorts, according to the documents, which did not provide a motive for the attack.
Police later executed search warrants on the house adjacent to Loebl’s, as well as a shipping container on the property in which Brown reportedly lived. Investigators found the red shirt and black shorts, as well as a large, black-handled knife, which had what appeared to be human fat on the blade, the documents state.
Brown was taken into custody without incident police said, but requested a lawyer after being read his Miranda rights.
Documents state that Brown has no prior felony convictions and his DNA is not on file.
Prior to being fatally stabbed, Loebl had been a widow for about three months.
Her 81-year-old husband, Bob — a retired mobile phone technician for the former Hawaiian Tel and a U.S. Air Force veteran — died Dec. 23 in the couple’s Olu Street home, according to an obituary provided by Dodo Mortuary.
The county’s Real Property Tax Office website indicates the Loebls purchased the home in 1988.
Brown, who is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree terroristic threatening, made his initial court appearance Monday.
Deputy Public Defender Jared Auna represented Brown at Monday’s hearing, but told Hilo District Judge Jeffrey Hawk the Public Defender’s Office has in the past represented the witness — who also is the victim in the terroristic threatening case — and could decide continuing to represent Brown would be a conflict of interest.
Hawk maintained Brown’s bail at $2.02 million and ordered him to return to court Wednesday for a preliminary hearing.
According to the complaint, Brown is subject to a possible extended term of imprisonment — which, in the case of second-degree murder, would make a conviction a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole, instead of the standard life with the possibility of parole.
The possibility of extended sentencing could come into effect in this case because Lola Loebl was older than 60.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
