Police arrest suspect after Waiau standoff
Police arrested a suspect this morning after a 15-hour barricade situation on Kuleana Place in Waiau that kept some residents away from their homes overnight.Police said about 15 homes were evacuated yesterday after a man wanted on temporary restraining order warrants ran into a duplex at 98-114 Kauhihau Place at 4:45 p.m.
Police entered the home with a battering ram at 8:15 a.m. today and arrested the suspect. He was found hiding in the attic, said police Maj. Kenneth Barker.
Dozens of officers running around with rifles and sounds of tear-gas canisters popping in the night worried the neighborhood.
"I told my (9-year-old) daughter that there was a man in trouble and the police were waiting for him," said neighbor Clyde Okuda. "I said we would pray for him and the police officers."
Kauai police red-faced after false bomb alarm
LIHUE -- A portion of the Kauai police headquarters was evacuated yesterday when an officer discovered an artillery round in a box left in a corridor.The Kauai Police Department, which does not have its own bomb squad, put out calls for help to the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai and the Army's Explosive Ordnance Disposal team at Schofield Barracks.
Instead of a loud bang, all the officers received were red faces.
The all-clear was sounded when an officer recognized the shell that had been stored for years in the department's evidence room. It long ago had been declared incapable of exploding by Army experts.
"It's kind of embarrassing,"' said police Inspector Melvin Morris.
Who dumped chemicals into Nuuanu Stream?
State officials are seeking the source of a chemical spill that killed thousands of fish in Nuuanu Stream on Wednesday.The poison, possibly a pesticide, was released into the stream between Kimo Drive and Dow Street in Nuuanu Valley, according to the investigation by the Department of Health.
Kona prisoner killed by overdose of drugs
Investigators have determined that a man who died in a Kailua-Kona police holding cell Thursday had a mixture of dangerous drugs in his blood, and an inmate found dead at Halawa Prison on Wednesday died from heart problems, officials said.Big Island police said Rodell Rudel, 36, of Kaloko Mauka, had taken a number of pills before his arrest Thursday for abuse of a family or household member.
The 48-year-old Halawa inmate who was found lifeless in his bunk at Halawa Prison died of heart problems, according to the medical examiner's office.
His identity is being withheld pending family notification.
House bill would move primary election date
Hawaii's primary election would be held about a month earlier under a bill the House Judiciary Committee has unanimously approved.The measure would move up the primary election date to the second Saturday in August from the second to the last Saturday in September.
By allowing for at least 70 days between the primary and general elections, instead of the current minimum of 45, his office gets more time to prepare and mail general election absentee ballots, state chief election officer Dwayne Yoshina said yesterday.
Since state law establishes a six-day period during which an election can be contested, it is impossible to prepare absentee ballots "to comply with the federal guideline if a contest is filed after the primary election," Yoshina said.
Ex-Campbell trustee sues estate, law firm
Fred Trotter, a former Campbell Estate trustee and a beneficiary of the estate, has filed a lawsuit against the law firm of Ashford & Wriston for damages he says the firm caused the estate.Trotter is accusing Ashford & Wriston on his mother's behalf of malpractice in handling a rent arbitration involving Hawaii Meat Co. He also filed a petition against Campbell Estate trustees for failing to pursue claims against the law firm.
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Police, Fire, Courts
By Star-Bulletin staffPOLICE/FIRE
Police seek two men in pawnshop robbery
Police are searching for two armed men who robbed a pawnshop yesterday.The suspects robbed Easy Pawn at 3180 Koapaka St. in Kapalama at 10:40 a.m., police said.
In other news...
A Manoa woman reported she was raped by a man who broke into her home through a bathroom window at midnight, police said.
The woman, 46, also suffered a fractured hand during the attack.
The first was reported at 4:10 a.m. near the golf course at the Makaha Sheraton. The second was at 5:19 a.m. on Kaukamana Street.
Erwin Motoyama, 52, was walking along Kilauea Road near Crater Hill when he was struck by a bicycle ridden by a 25-year-old Haena man about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. He died Wednesday night at Queen's Hospital.
COURTS
Man guilty in Hilo shotgun killings
HILO -- A Hilo jury has found Tetsuya "Grizzly" Yamada, 62, guilty of two counts of manslaughter for the 1996 shotgun slayings of his ex-wife and stepdaughter.The jury chose a middle ground between Deputy Prosecutor Michael Kagami's claim that the killings were murder, and defense attorney Michael Ebesugawa's contention that Yamada was innocent because he suffers from brain damage, which prevents him from controlling his actions.
The jury found Yamada not guilty of burglary for entering the women's house to kill them.
Sentencing was set by Judge Greg Nakamura for March 19.
Police found Yamada at the scene holding a shotgun, saying he killed his ex-wife Carla Russell, 50, and his stepdaughter, Rachel DeCambra, 23.
But he later told police he only remembered overhearing them insulting him from their house next door, walking with his shotgun to their house, and then waking from an apparent blackout to find the women dead.
Ebesugawa argued that Yamada suffered brain damage in 1959 and 1973 auto accidents and in a 1971 horse-riding accident.
Kauai man indicted in vehicle break-ins
LIHUE -- A 20-year-old Kalaheo man has been indicted on charges of breaking into 28 vehicles and stealing stereo equipment during a three-week period last fall.The indictment was handed down by a Kauai County grand jury Jan. 25 and made public yesterday.
It charges Dorian Duarte-Linoz with 28 counts of unauthorized entry into vehicles and 27 counts of theft between Sept. 13 and Oct. 4.
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