HomeIndiaIndia and the worldTourist Charged in Hawaii Vacation Rental Fight That Killed Indian American Man from Pittsburgh

Tourist Charged in Hawaii Vacation Rental Fight That Killed Indian American Man from Pittsburgh

Tourist Charged in Hawaii Vacation Rental Fight That Killed Indian American Man from Pittsburgh

Benjamin Fleming. (Hawaii County Police Department photo)

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER /Associated Press

HONOLULU – A tourist from Pittsburgh has been charged with manslaughter after a deadly fight in a Hawaii vacation rental, police said.

A second tourist from Boston who had been arrested was released with no charges filed, police on the Big Island said March 31.

Police were called to a Kailua-Kona vacation rental early March 29 where a 30-year-old man wasn’t breathing.

An autopsy showed that Abhishek Gupta of Pittsburgh was strangled, police said.

A preliminary investigation found that an argument between the men turned physical, police said.

Benjamin Fleming, 37, of Pittsburgh and Alexander Germany-Wald, 31, of Boston were arrested. Fleming was later charged while Germany-Wald was released after police conferred with prosecutors.

A judge on March 31 declined a request by Fleming’s attorney to release him or lower his bail. Fleming had a plane ticket to return to Pennsylvania April 4 and pandemic-related restrictions on travel made it unfeasible for him to return for court hearings, the judge said in keeping his bail at $250,000.

Defense attorney Christopher Eggert also asked to postpone Fleming’s preliminary hearing and noted that his client doesn’t have a criminal history.

A man who answered at a phone number for Germany-Wald declined to comment.

(Associated Press researcher Monika Mathur in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.)

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