Thomas H.K. McCandless Jr., 40, a White man, died in Haleiwa, Hawaiʻi on September 29, 2018.
In the aftermath of that night, investigators treated his death as a fatal shooting, and attention soon narrowed to a North Shore man named Kaden Kanae. Authorities accused Kanae of being the gunman and filed a second-degree murder charge along with multiple weapons-related offenses tied to the same incident.
But the case never settled into a clean, uncontested narrative.
Reporting later highlighted holes the defense seized on: testing performed hours after the killing did not find gunshot residue on Kanae's hands, and the defense pointed to conflicting accounts—including a separate person's claim that he, not Kanae, was the shooter. Even as those disputes swirled, Kanae remained in custody for years while the prosecution held to its theory and prepared for trial.
When the case finally reached a jury in February 2024, it unfolded over roughly three weeks, with witness credibility and competing versions of events pressed hard in open court. The deliberations ended without unanimity, and the judge declared a mistrial—leaving McCandless' death unresolved in the eyes of the law, and setting the stage for prosecutors to try again.
As the state prepared for a retrial, prosecutors filed notice signaling they intended to use creative work connected to Kanae—lyrics from a widely streamed song—as part of their effort to establish identity, arguing the words should be treated as meaningful evidence rather than mere bravado. Kanae's attorney said that approach would be fought, while also pushing to dismiss the case on double-jeopardy grounds tied to how the first trial ended.
