Suspect in Death of Former Deputy City Attorney Pleads Not Guilty

Gerald Galaway, suspected by authorities to be responsible for the Sept. 1 of Celestial Cassman, deputy city attorney for Santa Cruz, Capitola and Half Moon Bay, pleaded not guilty Tuesday morning to charges of second-degree murder, kidnapping and attempted first-degree sexual assault, according to Hawaii News Now.

The arraignment took place in Maui's second circuit court in Wailuku, HI.

Galaway, a 38-year-old Santa Cruz resident who traveled to Maui on vacation with Cassman earlier this month, was arrested Monday and has been denied bail since his release from Maui Memorial Hospital. Galaway was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries sustained after he jumped off a 100-foot cliff following confrontation by police, according to media reports.

Police have reported that the results of an autopsy of Cassman's body show she of asphyxiation, according to a report from The Maui News.

Maui prosecutor Robert D. Rivera described Cassman's killing in as being conducted in "an especially heinous, atrocious or cruel manner."

According to Hawaii News Now, a witness seeing a man and woman believed to be Galaway and Cassman arguing in a car and then on the street. According to the witness, the man threw the woman on the ground.

Police reports document Cassman's body being found close to the 38-mile mark of the Kahekili Highway at 6:20 p.m. Sept. 1.

On Monday, Cassman was remembered by friends at a private vigil on Santa Cruz's Seabright State Beach, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported.

Cassman was also an attorney who worked at the Santa Cruz law firm of Atchison, Barisone, Condotti & Kovacevich. She also was on the board of directors for the Watsonville-based , or Court Appointed Special Advocates.

See the video of Galaway's arraignment Tuesday morning by clicking on the video in the media box to the right.