HILO – A Big Island grand jury has indicted two men in the 1994 murder of a Kaua’i horse dealer. Jason K. Santos and Oliver L. White are charged with robbery and second-degree murder in the death of Vernon Souza
HILO – A Big Island grand jury has indicted two men in the 1994 murder of a
Kaua’i horse dealer.
Jason K. Santos and Oliver L. White are charged with
robbery and second-degree murder in the death of Vernon Souza Jr.,
31.
Souza’s badly burned body was found in a section of charred brush off
Saddle Road on Sept. 30, 1994.
An autopsy showed Souza died from a cut
throat and had suffered blows to the head.
Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura this
week ordered bench warrants for Santos and White and set bail at $350,000 each.
Authorities believe Santos is living in Nevada and that White is in North
Dakota.
Deputy prosecutor Craig Masuda said police referred the case to
prosecutors after new detectives, Randall Ishii and Dana Chong Tim, were
assigned to the case in May of last year.
“The new detectives did a
fabulous job. They worked really, really hard,” Masuda said. “It was just
plain, old-fashioned good police work.”
Souza’s sister, Verna, called the
indictment “long overdue” and said she hopes it will encourage people who know
anything about the case to come forward.
She has said her brother often
traveled to the Big Island to take part in rodeos or to sell horses, and that
Santos and White knew Souza and picked him up from the airport the morning of
his death.
Three days after finding Souza’s body, police arrested Santos,
who was then 23 and living in Waimea, but did not file charges against him.
Police also sought White, then a 21-year-old rodeo rider.
