A 49-year-old Puna man is in police custody on drug charges after officers discovered marijuana and an "indoor grow" room on the property where he lived.

Police initially responded to a 911 call Friday (March 28) that reported a man had shot his wife at a Fern Acres property. Responding officers encountered Christopher Holt.

While looking for a victim, officers observed numerous marijuana plants growing on the rear portion of the property and additional marijuana plants being cultivated inside one of the homes but they were unable to locate a victim.

Eventually, officers made contact with the alleged shooting victim, who said she was fine and on Kauai with the male owner of the property.

Vice officers obtained and served a search warrant on the property the next day. They recovered 95 marijuana plants. Sixty-four of the plants (some as large as 6-feet tall) were recovered from the rear of the property and 31 were recovered from the "indoor grow" room, which contained grow lights and other equipment. Officers secured several firearms, which were registered to the property owner, for safekeeping. Officers also recovered 4.98 pounds of dried processed marijuana, 23.7 grams of hashish oil and 15.4 pounds of "marijuana butter," which tested positive for THC.

Holt was charged Monday with two counts of commercial promotion of marijuana, two counts of promoting a detrimental drug, one count of promoting a harmful drug and five counts of possessing drug paraphernalia. His bail was set at $13,000.

Holt's wife, 45-year-old Zena Hendrix, and the property owner, 46-year-old Matthew Brittain, turned themselves in to police Monday and were arrested but released without charges pending further investigation. 

Officers discovered that there were a total of seven State of Hawaii medicinal marijuana permits listing the address for the property. All three suspects lived at that address and had permits but the amounts found at the property exceeded what was authorized by state law.  The law allows a person to grow and have in possession on property a maximum of seven marijuana plants (three mature, four immature), plus three ounces of dried marijuana.

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