HONOLULU — A Hawaii vacation for three tourists from the U.S. East Coast turned deadly after one of them became “psychotically” drunk, his friend testified Wednesday.
Alexander Germany-Wald, of Montclair, testified at a preliminary hearing for his college buddy, Benjamin Fleming of Pittsburgh, who is charged with murder in the strangulation of their friend, Abhishek Gupta, also of Pittsburgh.
The three men, friends since college at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, were staying at a Big Island vacation rental last month when Gupta was asked to leave a bar because he was belligerently drunk, Germany-Wald said.
Germany-Wald said he took Gupta back to their Kailua-Kona Airbnb, while Fleming stayed behind.