Hawaii vacation of 3 friends from East Coast ended in death
By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER Associated Press
HONOLULU (AP) — A New Jersey man says a Hawaii vacation with his two friends from Pittsburgh ended in death after one of them became “psychotically” drunk. Alexander Germany-Wald of Montclair, New Jersey, testified at a preliminary hearing for his college buddy, Benjamin Fleming, who is charged with murder in the strangulation of their friend, Abhishek Gupta. Germany-Wald says he and Gupta got into a fistfight at their Big Island vacation rental after Gupta was asked to leave a bar. Germany-Wald says Fleming intervened and restrained Gupta, who later stopped breathing. Germany-Wald and Fleming were arrested. Germany-Wald was later released, and Fleming was charged with murder.