A U.S. Marine master sergeant faces a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Oahu on charges of unpremeditated murder in the killing of a Las Vegas escort who was visiting Hawaii to celebrate her 29th birthday, authorities said.
MSgt. Nathaniel Cosby, 38, of Jefferson, Ala., was being held in the brig at Pearl Harbor pending an "Article 32 hearing," which will determine whether he should face a court-martial, Marine Corps Forces Pacific said Tuesday.
He also faces charges of voluntary manslaughter, obstructing justice and patronizing a prostitute, the Marine Corps said.
Honolulu police arrested Cosby in June in the death of Ivanice "Ivy" Harris, of Portland, Ore., who worked as an upscale escort in Las Vegas, after Harris' naked body was found May 20 along an Oahu highway.
The medical examiner reported that she had died of a neck injury but couldn't be more specific because the body had been outdoors for several days and was badly decomposed.
Cosby was confined by military authorities after the Naval Criminal Investigative Service took over the investigation later in June.
Normally, Cosby is a bomb technician based at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in southern Japan. He was on temporary assignment with an aircraft unit at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe at the time Harris' body was found, the Marine Corps said in June.
NBC station KHNL of Honolulu reported that Cosby was recorded on security video with Harris at least twice at a hotel on Waikiki before she disappeared. One video showed Cosby struggling to drag a heavy suitcase out of the hotel the morning after the two of them were first recorded on video in the lobby, the station reported.
Shortly after Harris' body was found, Andre Miller, a childhood friend who is serving as a spokesman for her family, told The Oregonian newspaper of Portland that while Harris made her living as an escort, she had enrolled in a community college and was planning to move back home to Oregon.
Natasha Lial, another longtime friend, said Harris often traveled to stand in the front row at concerts by her boyfriend, Mike Mills, a rap artist who goes by the stage name Meezilini Da Bank Roll.
"She was genuine, heartfelt, sincere and the true definition of a friend," Lial told The Oregonian. "She always made you feel loved."