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Driver must
stand trial in hit-
and-run death

Valoroso is charged with
negligent homicide in the truck-
pedestrian incident

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

A man charged with hitting 10-year-old Jerry Kekahuna with a pickup truck in Waianae more than a year ago was ordered to stand trial in the boy's death.

But a Honolulu District Court judge ruled there wasn't enough evidence to charge Victor Valoroso with fleeing the scene without giving aid in the incident on Dec. 14, 1998.

By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Victor Valoroso faces up to five years in prison if he is
convicted in the death of Jerry Kekahuna.

District Judge Tenney Tongg bound Valoroso over to Circuit Court yesterday to face trial on a second-degree negligent homicide charge. He will be arraigned Feb. 14.

If convicted, Valoroso faces a sentence of up to five years in prison or probation.

Witness Steve Buell testified yesterday that he followed Valoroso from the intersection where Kekahuna was struck -- in front of Waianae Intermediate School -- to the end of a driveway near the Waianae Boat Harbor, a distance of about 200 yards.

"I yelled out, 'Eh, dude, you better get back there 'cuz you're gonna ruin your life,' " Buell said.

Valoroso appeared distraught and was holding his head in his hands as a woman riding in the truck spoke to him. He finally began walking back to the scene of the crash, Buell said.

He said Valoroso had sped past him earlier and that he dreaded something was about to happen when he spotted the kids at the intersection ahead and the light turning yellow.

Had Valoroso not been pursued or warned, he wouldn't have returned to the scene, Deputy Prosecutor Colin Lau argued.

But Tongg found that Valoroso did return to the scene, although not right away, Lau said.

Valoroso's attorney, Myles Breiner, said his client has admitted to hitting the boy, but whether he was speeding or was inattentive is up to a jury to decide.

Breiner also said it is possible Kekahuna and two older brothers who were with him might have been negligent in running across the street as they did.

Buell testified that he saw a group of kids sprint across Farrington Highway with two of them outrunning a third who stopped and did a 180-degree turn before he was apparently struck.