Pittsburgh man charged in death of Carnegie Mellon classmate in Hawaii

Three men embroiled in a manslaughter case in Hawaii — including the victim, the man accused of killing him, and another charged and released — all graduated from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business last year.

Benjamin P. Fleming, 37, of Pittsburgh, is charged with manslaughter and is being held on a $250,000 bond in connection with the strangulation death of Abhishek Gupta, also of Pittsburgh.

Police said that Fleming was a tourist in Honolulu when he was involved in a fight early Monday. Officers were called to a vacation rental in Kailua-Kona, where they found Gupta, 30, not breathing.

Alexander Germany-Wald, 31, of Boston, who also graduated from CMU’s Tepper School, was initially arrested but later released.

According to the court docket in Fleming’s case, defense attorney Christopher Eggert sought reduction in bail to $100,000 during a hearing on Wednesday, to which the prosecution objected.

Eggert told the court his client has no criminal record and has a plane ticket to return to Pennsylvania on Sunday. However, the judge said pandemic-related restrictions on travel will make it unfeasible for Fleming to return to Hawaii, and kept bail at $250,000.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 7.

Eggert did not return a phone call seeking comment.

A man who answered at a phone number for Germany-Wald declined to comment.

A LinkedIn page for a person with the name Abhishek Gupta shows that he graduated from Tepper with an MBA and works as a senior consultant with Deloitte Strategy and Operations. Deloitte did not return a message Thursday afternoon.

A LinkedIn page for a man named Ben Fleming, which says he earned his MBA from Tepper last year, shows that he is a member of the U.S. Army and has been for more than 18 years.

A spokeswoman for Carnegie Mellon confirmed the men graduated from there but did not offer any other comment on the situation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.