Legend Storer has pleaded not guilty to murder, burglary and indecent exposure after prosecutors secured a grand jury indictment in Michael Dyer’s death.
WAILUKU, Hawaii — The criminal case arising from the death of Maui security guard Michael Dyer now centers on three charges carrying separate allegations: that Legend Storer caused Dyer’s death, unlawfully entered a building under circumstances alleged to constitute first-degree burglary and exposed himself in public. Storer has pleaded not guilty to all three.
The charges grew out of an Aug. 5 encounter at the Sands of Kahana condominium complex in West Maui. Police said surveillance footage showed an unclothed man approach Dyer’s security office at about 1:45 a.m., assault him and flee on foot. Dyer, 63, was working the overnight shift and was later found unresponsive at the property. Medical personnel said he died from his injuries. Investigators subsequently said they linked the person in the recording to a 20-year-old man officers had encountered nearby before Dyer’s body was reported.
The most serious accusation is second-degree murder. Under Hawaii law, the offense generally requires proof that a person intentionally or knowingly caused another person’s death. The indictment means a grand jury found sufficient basis for the charge to proceed; it does not establish guilt. Prosecutors will still have to prove the elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt if the case reaches trial. Storer’s not-guilty plea formally disputes the state’s accusations and preserves his right to challenge its evidence.
The first-degree burglary count addresses a different part of the prosecution’s theory. Hawaii law provides several routes to the offense, including circumstances in which a person unlawfully enters or remains in a building intending to commit a crime and is armed with a dangerous instrument during the offense. Court documents in Storer’s case allege that he unlawfully entered a building at the resort and was armed with a 5-gallon water bottle described as a dangerous instrument. Reports based on the filing say prosecutors contend the container was used in the fatal assault. That allegation has not been proven.
The indecent-exposure count reflects another feature of the police account: authorities say the man depicted at the resort and later encountered in the Kahana area was unclothed. Police dispatchers received a report at about 3:02 a.m. of a naked man wandering through the neighborhood. Officers located a 20-year-old man approximately 30 minutes later and said he had numerous abrasions. They took him to Maui Memorial Medical Center for evaluation. At that stage of the morning, the available chronology indicates police had not yet responded to the call reporting Dyer unresponsive at the resort.
That second call arrived around 5:31 a.m. Officers went to Sands of Kahana, where emergency personnel reported that a 63-year-old Lahaina man had died from injuries sustained at the location. Police later identified him as Dyer. Investigators reviewed the property’s surveillance footage and concluded that the man officers had found earlier in Kahana was the same person recorded at Dyer’s office. Court records later identified the charged defendant as Storer, also of Lahaina.
The surveillance recording is therefore important to more than one element of the prosecution’s narrative. According to police, it places an unclothed man at the office, records the assault and shows the man leaving on foot. Investigators say their review allowed them to connect that person with the man officers had already encountered. Public reporting has not disclosed every piece of evidence investigators gathered after making that connection. The sources reviewed do not establish what forensic testing was performed, whether fingerprints or DNA were recovered or precisely how the alleged 5-gallon container was documented.
Storer’s initial court appearances dealt in part with whether he would remain jailed while the case proceeded. District Court Judge Christopher Dunn ordered him held without bail. Hawaii News Now reported that Dunn said he could not identify a combination of conditions that would reasonably assure Storer’s appearance or protect the community. Defense attorneys had sought nominal bail. Pretrial detention decisions are based on legal standards separate from the ultimate question of guilt, and Storer remains entitled to the presumption of innocence unless the state proves its case.
The prosecution then presented the matter to a Maui grand jury, which indicted Storer on second-degree murder, first-degree burglary and indecent exposure. He later entered a not-guilty plea to the indicted charges. The latest specific court report found for this article was published Aug. 14 and said Storer was being held without bail and was scheduled to return for a request involving a mental health evaluation. No later verified report located in the reviewed sources established what the court ultimately did with that request. Its existence should not be treated as evidence of a mental illness or as an explanation for the alleged conduct.
Questions of motive remain outside the publicly described charging theory. Police have not announced why they believe Dyer was attacked, and the reports reviewed do not establish that Dyer and Storer knew each other before Aug. 5. Authorities also have not publicly explained why the alleged assailant was unclothed. Those facts may be relevant to later proceedings, but at present they remain unanswered rather than proven parts of an explanation for the killing.
Dyer’s co-workers and family accounts provide a different perspective from the legal filings. Bell Hill, who worked with Dyer, told Hawaii News Now that Dyer was in his office eating a cheeseburger during his lunch break when the attack happened and described him as a great person. A fundraiser organized for Dyer’s wife, Joy, said they had been married for 26 years. Such accounts do not determine any element of the criminal charges, but they establish that Dyer was working a routine overnight security shift when the events underlying the prosecution occurred.
Storer had previously drawn attention for accomplishments far removed from a criminal courtroom. Concordia University Irvine listed him as a member of its men’s swimming and diving team for the 2024-25 season. His athletics biography identified him as a graduate of Maui Preparatory Academy and a two-time Maui Interscholastic League champion. A university representative said he did not return after Concordia discontinued its men’s swimming program in May 2025. No verified source reviewed for this article links his athletic history to the alleged crime, and it should not be treated as evidence for or against the charges.
The distinction between what police say happened and what prosecutors must prove will become increasingly important as the case advances. A police investigation can produce probable cause for arrest, and a grand jury can return an indictment, but neither resolves factual disputes in the way a guilty plea or trial verdict would. Evidence described in news accounts may also be challenged, limited or placed in a different context in court. Storer’s defense has not been fully laid out in the public reports reviewed beyond his not-guilty plea and earlier request for a different bail decision.
What is firmly established is narrower than many of the questions surrounding the case. Dyer died after suffering injuries at Sands of Kahana. Police say surveillance footage recorded an assault at his office. Officers had encountered a naked 20-year-old man in nearby Kahana before Dyer was reported unresponsive, and investigators said the recording connected that encounter to the resort. Storer was arrested, indicted and entered not-guilty pleas. The reason for the alleged attack remains publicly unexplained, and the state’s accusations await testing through the court process.
Author note: Last updated September 22, 2026.