Ex-con arrested
for threatening
witness with gun

He allegedly showed a pistol
to a woman who was a witness
in his cellmate's case

By Nelson Daranciang
Star-Bulletin

SWAT team members arrested a man, just released from prison, for threatening a witness in his former cellmate's case, police said.

The 30-year-old Punchbowl man was formally arrested at the main police station at 1:15 this morning after a short standoff at the home of a 36-year-old woman at 1455 Pele Street.

The woman was involved in another standoff in January involving her boyfriend Frank Chin, 24. In that incident, police SWAT team members were called out twice to the Nuuanu Gardens Apartments. Chin apparently eluded police on Jan. 5 and then was recaptured after returning to the apartment on Jan. 8.

Chin was rearrested last Wednesday for intimidating a witness when he allegedly threatened a woman from his prison cell.

The man arrested last night was Chin's cellmate at the Halawa Community Correctional Facility.

The man went to the woman's home Pele Street . Once inside, the man took out a handgun from the waistband of his pants and showed the woman that it was loaded.

According to the police report the man then told the woman he was interested in what was happening in his cellmate's case.

The man prevented the woman from leaving her apartment, but she was able to call an investigator from the Honolulu Prosecutor's office when the man left the apartment to go to his car.

Police were called at about 9:55 p.m. and the man surrendered without incident and was arrested for intimidating a witness, kidnapping and violating his parole.