Retired LAPD Detective Pleads Guilty in 2006 Killing in Ka`u

A retired Los Angeles police detective has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2006 death of his wife in Ka`u.

Daniel DeJarnette entered the plea on March 15, the Los Angeles Times reported late Monday afternoon.

DeJarnette, 59, was initially arrested on Nov. 14, 2006, two days after police were called to his Hawaiian Ocean View Estates for what he said was a home accident.

Officers found Yu DeJarnette, 56, lying on a lava embankment near their home with extensive head injuries.

DeJarnette reportedly told police that his wife had fallen over the embankment while hanging laundry.

Citing a lack of evidence, police released DeJarnette from custody four days after the incident.

After the case was reopened in January 2012, DNA and other testing showed Yu DeJarnette’s blood on items recovered from the home, the Times reported. According to police, DeJarnette bludgeoned his wife with a car jack stand, the newspaper said.

In May 2012, DeJarnette was indicted by a grand jury for second-degree murder. He had been scheduled for trial in June.

He faces up to 20 years in prison on the manslaughter charge.

His sentencing date was not immediately available as Hawaii courts were closed today for the Prince Kuhio Day holiday.

According to the Times, Yu Dejarnette told co-workers at a Kona grocery store where she worked that she wanted to leave her husband.

The Times reported that according to the agreement, under which he pleaded guilty to manslaughter while under extreme emotional distress, DeJarnette admitted that he struck his wife twice with the jack stand in a bathroom after she had slapped him.

DeJarnette had taken out a $300,000 life insurance policy on his wife, the Times said, but the insurance company refused to pay on the policy because of the circumstances of her death.

DeJarnette joined the LAPD in 1982 and after retiring moved to HOVE in 2003, the newspaper said.