Schoolmate arrested in Hawaii girl's 1977 murder released from Utah jail as prosecution stalls

A 66-year-old suspect in the 1977 killing of a Hawaii teenager was released from a Utah jail on Thursday after prosecutors in Honolulu said they weren't ready to proceed with a murder charge against him.

Gideon Castro was arrested in January at a Utah nursing home on a fugitive warrant for suspicion of second-degree murder in the death of 16-year-old Dawn Momohara. He had waived the right to challenge his extradition during a hearing in Salt Lake City last month. Castro, who is ill, appeared by video from a hospital bed.

While Castro was still awaiting extradition, Honolulu prosecutors told their counterparts in Utah this week that they were not proceeding against him because of "recent complications involving a material witness in this case and the state of the evidence."