A 66-year-old suspect in the 1977 killing of a Hawaii teenager was released from a Utah jail on Thursday after Honolulu prosecutors decided they were not ready to prosecute him with murder.
Gideon Castro was captured in January at a Utah nursing home on a fugitive warrant for second-degree murder in the killing of Dawn Momohara, who was 16 years old. He waived his right to contest his extradition during a hearing in Salt Lake City last month. Castro, who is unwell, appeared in a video from his hospital bed.
While Castro awaited extradition, Honolulu prosecutors informed their Utah counterparts this week that they would not proceed against him due to “recent complications involving a material witness in this case and the state of the evidence.”
“Please understand we view this as only a temporary setback, and we remain fully committed to continuing our efforts to prosecute this matter in the near future,” Kelsi Guerra, a deputy prosecuting attorney in Honolulu, wrote in a Monday letter to Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Clifford Ross.
Utah District Court Judge John Nielsen ordered Castro’s release late Wednesday afternoon. He was freed on Thursday, according to Chris Bronson, spokesperson for the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
On March 21, 1977, just after 7:30 a.m., Honolulu police discovered Momohara’s body on the second floor of a building at McKinley High School. She was lying on her back, half-clothed with an orange cloth tied securely around her neck, having been sexually assaulted and strangled, authorities added.
Castro graduated from the Honolulu school in 1976.
Castro’s counsel stated at a hearing last month in Salt Lake City that he intended to contest the accusations when he returned to Hawaii, where he is still a resident, according to jail records. It’s unclear how long Castro had been in Utah before being detained at a nursing home in Millcreek, just south of Salt Lake City.
A McKinley High School alumni who was the band teacher at the time of Momohara’s death expressed disappointment upon learning of Castro’s release.
“I guess they’ve got to make sure they have a rock-solid case,” Grant Okamura said.
“In a sense I’m disappointed that they couldn’t at least go to trial but I can understand their nervousness that they don’t want to just haphazardly go into something and have it thrown out.”
Authorities in Hawaii confirmed Thursday that they were still investigating Momohara’s death. Michelle Yu, a representative with Honolulu police, said no further information will be shared at this time.
Following Momohara’s death, police issued sketches of a person of interest and a potential vehicle, which witnesses described as a 1974 or 1975 Pontiac Lemans. However, they were unable to identify a suspect, and the case became cold.
Police exploited breakthroughs in DNA testing to link Castro to the killing. They interrogated Castro and his brother in 1977, but they couldn’t definitively link Castro to the assassination until they obtained DNA samples in recent years.
Reference: Utah judge orders release of suspect in 1977 Hawaii killing after prosecution stalls
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