A 36-year-old Pahoa man accused of brutally killing three older men last week in lower Puna will receive a mental examination.

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Hilo District Judge Jeffrey Hawk on Monday ordered that Jacob “Jake” Daniel Baker be examined by three mental-health professionals to determine his fitness to stand trial as well as penal responsibility — his state of mind at the time of the alleged offenses and whether he could discern the wrongfulness and illegality of his alleged actions.

“Judge, I have tried extensively to communicate with Mr. Baker. His responses to me were nonresponsive,” Deputy Public Defender Arthur Indiola told the judge while requesting the mental exam.

Deputy Prosecutor Patrick Munoz had no objection to the exam, and Hawk ordered Baker to return to court at 10 a.m. Aug. 11.

Baker is charged with first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of 69-year-old Robert “Bob” Shine, 79-year-old Frederick “Chitta” Morse and 69-year-old John Carse.

He is also charged with first-degree burglary, first- and fourth-degree theft, first-degree unauthorized entry to motor vehicle, first-degree unauthorized control of a stolen vehicle and two counts of fourth-degree property damage.

Hawk on Monday also granted a motion by Munoz to hold Baker without bail on the murder charges and maintained bail on the nonhomicide offenses at $193,000.

“The court’s going to find that there is a serious risk that (Baker) poses a danger to the people of the community,” Hawk said. “… In this matter, it’s alleged that he has killed three people, all over the age of 60. The murders that were committed were particularly brutal and heinous, involving knives and strangulation.”

According to court documents filed by police, Carse — whose body was the last to be discovered by police on the evening of May 26 — was found after his tenant, a 79-year-old woman, called police to report him missing from his property on Kalapana-Kapoho Beach Road.

Officers found blood in the grassy driveway of Carse’s residence, with a black rubber slipper and a pair of eyeglasses nearby, as well as a baseball cap that had been apparently thrown into the brush. A little farther up the driveway, police found a paper bag that had a Microtech knife box with an S. Tokunaga Store sticker showing a price of $444, as well as an Olukai sandals tag with an S. Tokunaga Store sticker showing a price of $90.

According to the documents, surveillance video from S. Tokunaga showed Baker purchasing the knife, two brass knuckles and the sandals with cash.

The body of Carse — whom the Tribune-Herald learned was a retired insurance salesman who allowed Baker to harvest coconuts from his property and sell them — was found concealed beneath a piece of corrugated roofing material with multiple lacerations to his face and neck.

Detective Daniel Tam received an email from a 39-year-old woman who said she’d driven Baker to S. Tokunaga Store in Hilo on May 26, according to the documents. During the drive home, Baker allegedly showed the woman a newly purchased knife and said he would “shank all the rapists in Pahoa and anyone who messed with him.”

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Describing Baker as “erratic, aggressive, upset and hyper-verbal,” the woman reportedly told the detective Baker said the island was full of rapists and pedophiles and he wanted to “chop them up with machetes.”

The woman said Baker claimed to be a cartel sicario, or hitman, and began speaking to her in Spanish, according to the documents. She also said that upon returning to Pahoa, Baker asked to be taken to a tattoo shop, where he got a facial tattoo in Spanish the woman was unable to read.

The pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Carse found a broken jaw, broken breastbone, severed right carotid artery and jugular vein, and wounds consistent with those inflicted by a double-edged knife.

A 34-year-old man living on the same Papaya Farms Road property as Shine reportedly told Tam on May 25 that he punched Baker in the face several times after Baker kicked a dog. The man reportedly told Tam that as he punched Baker, Baker yelled, “Bob is dead! Bob is dead! Bob is dead!”

Shine’s body was found fully submersed in a rain catchment tank on an adjacent property, the documents state.

The autopsy noted six rib fractures and contusions to the lungs and other organs consistent with blunt-force trauma. There were also contusions to the neck and bone fractures indicative of strangulation. In addition, there was reportedly no water in the lungs or sinus cavity, indicating that Shine was dead prior to being placed into the water.

Morse was discovered lying supine unresponsive in his bed on May 26 by a 41-year-old man, the documents state. There was blood spatter on the headboard, and Morse had severe traumatic injuries to the face, head, skull, chest, and fingers severed on his left hand.

Written on the headboard in what appeared to be pencil were the words “LF” and “SANTA MUERTE,” police said. Near his body was a piece of scrap wood bearing the words “Pedofilio,” “Drogos,” and “LACOCAINA.”

Tam wrote that he had observed a notebook bearing the letters “LF” near the area where Shine appeared to sleep. Officers also allegedly observed the words “LA FLAQUITAS” — the words recently tattooed under Baker’s left eye — written on the wall of Shine’s house.

No statement from Baker was obtained by police, and he requested a Jewish lawyer, the documents state.

First-degree murder, which is rare in Hawaii, was charged in this case because there were multiple victims. It carries a mandatory penalty, upon conviction, of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Unlike many other states, Hawaii does not use premeditation as its primary standard for first-degree murder. Instead, the charge is reserved for highly aggravated circumstances, and the vast majority of premeditated homicides are charged as second-degree murder. A second-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.

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Email John Burnett at [email protected].