According to police, two cousins from Kurtistown were caught on video killing a 44-year-old Hawaiian Acres man.
According to police, two cousins from Kurtistown were caught on video killing a 44-year-old Hawaiian Acres man.
Police say surveillance footage captured at Dante Peter Gilman’s home shows 30-year-old Claude Keone Krause shooting Gilman, followed by Krause’s 19-year-old cousin, Kawena K. Krause, choking him.
Both Krauses pleaded not guilty on Tuesday in Hilo District Court to charges of second-degree murder, first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, second-degree theft and use of a firearm in the commission of a separate felony. The elder Krause also entered a not guilty plea to being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Judge Harry Freitas set preliminary hearings for both defendants for Thursday at 2 p.m. Both men are being held without bail at Hawaii Community Correctional Center.
Court-appointed attorneys for the Krauses objected to requests by the Tribune-Herald to photograph court proceedings.
“Mr. Krause’s name and photograph has appeared multiple times in the newspapers within the last week,” said Christopher Bridges, representing Kawena Krause. “I don’t see how showing him shackled here like an animal will do anything to further the public interest. It would only serve to make it impossible to get a fair jury in this jurisdiction.”
Freitas noted the objections for the record and allowed the media to photograph.
Gilman was reported missing by police on Jan. 10. A bulletin said he was last seen in Hawaiian Acres “on or about Dec. 30.” Police later reported that they had evidence that Gilman was murdered. The Krauses were later arrested and charged.
Court documents state that police “learned that an altercation took place at the residence of Gilman involving the three suspects, Claude K. Krause, … Kawena Krause and a younger unidentified male who appears to be a minor, who was also present.”
According to the documents, the surveillance footage from Gilman’s Huina Road home “appears to corroborate a confrontation” and shows “a suspect who appears to be Claude K. Krause pointing a rifle at Gilman, subsequently shooting Gilman.”
Police wrote that the video also shows “a person who appears to be … Kawena Krause applying a choke hold on Gilman while on the ground until his body goes limp.”
“The video also depicted Gilman’s lifeless body being dragged out of the view of the camera,” documents state.
It’s not known who the minor is or if a third arrest has been made. Arrests of minors are not public information unless the minor is charged as an adult.
Gilman’s body has not yet been found.
Gilman is the son of the late Peter Gilman, a Honolulu Star-Bulletin reporter in the 1950s and the author of “Diamond Head,” a book that reached No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List and was made into a 1963 film starring Charlton Heston.
The elder Gilman died in Hilo in 1999 at age 73.
Claude Keone Krause was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the December 2000 sexual assault and burglary of the late Mayapple McCullough in her Waa Waa home.
Kawena Krause has no prior felony convictions.