StarBulletin.com

Neighbor helped with burglary bust in police-gun theft


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POSTED: Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Honolulu police said witnesses helped them track down and arrest a man in the theft of an officer's service pistol just hours after the officer's Kapolei home was burglarized.

The officer reported money and his wife's jewelry also were taken Dec. 8.

The Honolulu prosecutor charged Aryss Kamai on Thursday with first-degree burglary, first-degree theft, being a felon in possession of a firearm, carrying a firearm without a permit, drug and drug paraphernalia possession.

Kamai, 23, pleaded not guilty to the charges Monday in Circuit Court. He remains in custody, unable to post $100,000 bail.

Police said the officer's neighbor saw a woman sitting in the passenger seat of a car in the neighborhood Dec. 8 and decided to park his truck nearby to keep an eye on the car. About five to 10 minutes later, the neighbor told police, he saw a man run from the officer's house, get into the car and drive off.

The neighbor told police the man was carrying what appeared to be an item the size of a shoe box, covered with a towel.

The neighbor said he followed the car, but the driver sped onto the H-1 freeway, police said.

About that time, Honolulu police said they received a report of a hazardous driver in a car with the same description.

Police went to the home of the car's owner, and Kamai and his girlfriend, who is the sister of the car's owner, were at the residence. After a neighbor arrived and identified Kamai as the driver of the car, police said they found a glass pipe containing methamphetamine residue in Kamai's pocket.

According to police, Kamai said another man put the stolen gun in the back bedroom of the home through the bedroom window.

An officer found an open bedroom window and saw a police gun belt containing a handgun, and numerous women's purses with cards and coins inside them, police said.

Police said they also found Kamai's palm print and fingerprints inside and outside the burglarized Kapolei home.

Kamai has previous convictions for first-degree burglary and second-degree theft for which he is on probation. He is also awaiting trial for firearm, drug and drug paraphernalia possession.

After he was arrested on the firearm, drug and paraphernalia charges, a state judge resentenced him in April for the burglary and theft convictions to one year in jail but granted him early release into a drug treatment program.