A Hilo grand jury on Wednesday indicted a 40-year-old Pahoa man for the Aug. 25 slaying of his 63-year-old mother outside her lower Puna home.
A Hilo grand jury on Wednesday indicted a 40-year-old Pahoa man for the Aug. 25 slaying of his 63-year-old mother outside her lower Puna home.
Sean Alan Rutledge is charged with second-degree murder for the stabbing death of Nadean Rutledge, a public information officer for the Waiopae tide pools in Kapoho.
Sean Rutledge, a disbarred attorney who, according to his New York disbarment order, legally changed his name to Alan Frank, was the subject of a manhunt by police after they found his mother dead outside her home on Kapoho Kai Drive. A police dispatch shortly after the slaying described him as a “wanted suspect” and “armed and dangerous.”
Police arrested him the following morning on a California extradition warrant alleging he violated his parole on a conviction in that state for a criminal threat to cause great bodily injury.
Rutledge is being held without bail on the California warrant at Hawaii Community Correctional Center. California authorities have until Sept. 23 to extradite Rutledge for the alleged parole violation.
At the indictment returns Wednesday afternoon, Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Hashizaki told Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara the state believes “Mr. Rutledge poses a serious risk to flee the state of Hawaii.”
“Due to the seriousness of the crime as well as the serious risk that Mr. Rutledge will flee the state, we’re asking for no bail,” Hashizaki told the judge.
“OK, Mr. Hashizaki, was he already picked up by California authorities?” Hara asked.
“He was not picked up yet by the California authorities,” Hashizaki replied.
“So you going to hold him here?” the judge inquired.
“We will hold him here, yes,” the prosecutor answered.
Police haven’t officially said how Nadean Rutledge died. After the returns, Hashizaki said, “The autopsy report states Nadean Rutledge did have stab wounds to her back.”
Suzanne Fritsch, a friend of Nadean Rutledge, described the slain woman as “a wonderful friend and loyal wife.”
“She never even dated after her husband died,” Fritsch wrote in a Sept. 1 email to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald. “She was an animal lover. She fed the feral cats at the warm ponds and was a vegetarian since childhood.
“She loved her children with all her heart, and at great personal risk she brought Sean to Hawaii, hoping to keep him safe.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.