He allegedly beat up his 76 year-old cellmate, who died yesterday from extensive head injuries.
32 year-old Joseph Tui is no stranger to OCCC.
He was most recently locked up for assault charges, when he made a scene during a Hawaii 5-0 filming, harassing some of the production staff.
He’s also served time for sex assault, theft and burglary.
Now he’s facing murder charges.
"Shortly after 2 o’clock yesterday afternoon, some officers heard a disturbance loud noises at the holding unit on the 2nd floor," explains Ted Sakai, Department of Public Safety Director.
That’s when they found a 76 year-old man, whose name they are not releasing yet, barely conscious.
He was in jail awaiting his trial for robbery in the 2nd degree.
"It’s my understanding he was beaten severely around the head," says Sakai.
The two men were being housed together in a holding unit, which is basically a jail within the jail for people who are in trouble for misconduct.
Normally there’s supposed to be one person per cell, but the Department of Public Safety said that’s not always possible.
"The whole facility is overcrowded, 36 cells in the holding unit, 2 out of commission and yesterday we had 49 inmates that need to be separated," states Sakai.
Adding to the problem, the fight broke out during a shift change.
At 2 p.m the guards coming on shift did a head count.
As they were confirming their numbers, they heard a commotion.
When they saw the severity of the 76 year-old man’s condition, they called their in house health care workers to perform CPR until the fire department and EMS arrived at 2:25 p.m.
At 2:32 p.m they called HPD, so Tui could be taken into custody.
"Our Internal Affairs Office was immediately summoned, thus far we haven’t found any evidence of any dereliction by staff," says Sakai.
Four years ago, in a separate incident there was video evidence of dereliction by staff.
This time Tui had been on the receiving end of violence at Halawa correctional facility as guards were caught on camera beating him up.
A cycle of violence that cost 3 guards their jobs and now an inmate his life.
The Department of Public Safety is continuing their own internal investigation to see if any procedures or protocols need to be changed.
And HPD is conducting a murder investigation.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
