A preliminary hearing tomorrow at District Court for a man accused of killing Jermaine Michael Duckworth March 27 in Wai'anae could be superceded by a grand jury indictment.

"We're not expecting a preliminary hearing but we'll be ready if there is one," said attorney Michael Green, who is representing Patrick W. Deguair Jr.

Deguair, 30, a security officer at Hale Koa hotel, is charged with second-degree murder, kidnapping, use of a prohibited weapon (silencer), snd two firearm offenses related to the Duckworth execution-style slaying. He is additionally charged with two drug-related offenses stemming from his arrest Thursday night at the Pagoda Hotel.

Deguair is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

Duckworth, 24, was a suspect in a Ma'ili home invasion robbery last Nov. 27 in which six people at a Kula'aupuni Street residence were robbed at gunpoint by four masked men wearing T-shirts emblazoned with a white "DEA" logo.

According to an affidavit filed at court, witnesses told police that Deguair allegedly restrained Duckworth at a residence on March 27 before driving him to Keawa'ula (Yokohama Bay} where "he shot him in the back of the head with a pistol equipped with a silencer and then pushed Jermaine off the cliff to the rocks below."

In a statement to The Advertiser today, Green said:

"The guy who was killed has been an informant for some time and was linked to a home-invasion robbery. My information is there are lots of people who didn't like him and had motives to hurt the guy."