HONOLULU — A jury on Friday found a man guilty in the 2017 murder of a woman cleaning a Hawaii vacation rental house and the kidnapping of her 8-year-old daughter.
Jurors found Stephen Brown guilty of second-degree murder, first-degree burglary and two counts of kidnapping.
The jury will return Monday to discuss whether he will receive an extended sentence of life in prison without possibility for parole, Hawaii News Now reported.
During his trial, Brown admitted to burglarizing the vacation rental on Oahu’s famed North Shore with his ex-girlfriend and helping tie up Thelma Boinville and her daughter, 8, when the 51-year-old mother showed up to clean the house, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported. But he said it was his ex-girlfriend, Hailey Dandurand, who killed Boinville.
Dandurand, who has pleaded not guilty, is scheduled to go to trial separately.
Boinville was found killed with a machete.
Dandurand and Brown were arrested near Boinville’s vehicle at the Town Center of Mililani the same day her body was found.
Brown admitted to burglarizing the Ke Iki Road vacation rental with Dandurand and helping to tie up both mother and daughter.
But he denied killing Boinville, who went to clean the house and surprised the couple who had been inside the home. In testimony earlier this week, Brown said Dandurand was the killer.
Boinville was found in a pool of blood, her head covered with a plastic bag and had numerous wounds to her head and body.
Key in the state’s case was Brown’s testimony that Boinville was fine when he tied her up and left to go outside — a fact that prosecutors said was implausible because of her defensive wounds.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser contributed to this report.
