A Wai‘anae man and woman accused of kidnapping and torturing a child pled not guilty on Thursday.
Jasmine Quiroz-Pele and James Heffernan were arrested earlier in August after a 13-year-old boy told officers that the two — respectively his mother and stepfather — had physically abused him for years.
On Thursday, the couple appeared before a First Circuit Judge and pled “not guilty” to all charges — in Quiroz-Pele’s case, two counts of torture and one of kidnapping, and in Heffernan’s, one count of kidnapping and one of conspiracy to commit torture.
According to court records, Honolulu Police responded to a runaway child on Aug. 6. When found, the child told officers that his 35-year-old mother had repeatedly subjected him to violent abuses for years.
The child said that, in 2024, Quiroz-Pele had forced him to hold a medicine ball while spraying a water hose into his face, preventing him from breathing properly.
This year, the child said Quiroz-Pele repeatedly threatened him: in January, she allegedly held a knife to his throat and said “convince me why I shouldn’t kill you,” and in February she reportedly stabbed him in the thigh with a paring knife.
In another incident, Quiroz-Pele reportedly “riled up” the family dogs to attack the child.
In July, the child said, Quiroz-Pele zip-tied him to a chair in his room for hours. The boy said his mother routinely locked him in his room at night, and that he was prohibited from using the home’s restroom. He said he was not permitted to eat and, at the time police found him, he had not eaten for three days, and had been wearing the same underwear for a month.
Heffernan, meanwhile, allegedly contributed. The boy said Heffernan had repeatedly punched him in the head and threw him against a wall. In another incident, Heffernan allegedly punished the child for accepting food offered by his five-year-old sister.
Judge Ronald Johnson said Thursday he is “deeply concerned about the nature of the allegations” and maintained a grand jury warrant to hold the couple without bail — initially, the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney set Quiroz-Pele’s bail at $400,000 and Heffernan’s at $200,000.
A jury trial for the two is scheduled for Oct. 19. Their three children are in the custody of Child Welfare Services.
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