A Hilo grand jury has indicted a 22-year-old Hilo man for allegedly stabbing a 25-year-old woman on the grounds of a Hilo church.
Through a Chuukese language interpreter, Tchok Atario on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, and first-degree terroristic threatening.
He was indicted June 22, two days after Hilo District Judge Kanani Laubach found no probable cause to bind Atario over for trial after listening to testimony at a preliminary hearing.
The victim, Courtney Joseph, was still hospitalized at that point and unable to testify at the preliminary hearing.
According to court documents filed by police, Joseph told officers she was hanging out with teenage friends on the grounds of the Church of the Holy Apostles in the early morning of June 14, and Atario showed up highly intoxicated and attempted to take her bottle of tequila.
When Joseph refused to give up the bottle, that led to a confrontation during which Joseph sustained knife wounds, documents state.
At Tuesday’s arraignment, Atario’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Keith Shigetomi, asked Hilo Circuit Judge Peter Kubota to schedule a hearing for further proceedings instead of trial, telling the judge there are going to be a number of pretrial motions.
Kubota reduced Atario’s bail from $295,000 to $50,000 and scheduled a hearing for 8:30 a.m. Sept. 14.
Shigetomi said after Tuesday’s arraignment he will compare transcripts from the preliminary hearing to what was presented before the grand jury.
“We need to find out whether they presented the grand jury indictment fairly, because … they presented five witnesses at the preliminary hearing, and the court found that there was no probable cause,” Shigetomi said. “And so, there was a lot of information that was brought out at the hearing that aren’t in the papers in support of the first complaint.
“If they don’t present a fair picture of what happened, then that’s grounds for a dismissal.”
Atario remained in custody Wednesday at Hawaii Community Correctional Center.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
