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Police, Fire, Courts
Star-Bulletin staff and wire
Vandals hit cemetery on Kauai
LIHUE >> Vandals toppled 16 tombstones and smashed dozens of vases at a Kauai cemetery over the weekend.The damage at the Lihue Cemetery on Wehe Road prompted a $1,000 reward from cemetery officials for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of anyone connected with the crime.
"This means war," said Michael Ellis, vice president of the Lihue Cemetery Association. "This time they went too far. These stones withstood the hurricanes and everything else, and now this."
Officials said the desecrated gravesites appeared to be chosen randomly. Some dated to the 1800s and were left beyond repair. In all, Ellis estimated the cost of repairs at more than $15,000.
Three county vehicles parked near the cemetery were also vandalized over the weekend, a dump truck was covered with graffiti and a garbage truck had its window broken.
Police, Fire, Courts
By Star-Bulletin staff
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
The impact of a collision on the H-1 freeway yesterday sent this car spinning into a tree.
HONOLULU
Police charged a 23-year-old Kalihi man with two counts of attempted murder for allegedly stabbing two men Sunday who he believed had damaged his car and beat up his uncle.
Kalihi man charged with attempted murderBail for Philip Wallace is $20,000.
Police said Wallace discovered his car had been heavily damaged while parked outside his Akahi Street home about 10:30 p.m. When he and an uncle confronted a group of males nearby, the uncle was severely beaten, police said.
Wallace ran to his home, got a knife and returned, where he stabbed two men, ages 18 and 19, police said. Both victims and Wallace's uncle were taken to the Queen's Medical Center in critical condition.
WINDWARD OAHU
Police are not pursuing criminal charges against the mother of a 10-month-old girl who was discovered dead after being left in a car for six hours.
Police will not charge mother of dead toddlerThe Honolulu medical examiner performed an autopsy on the child's body yesterday but deferred a cause-of-death determination pending further tests.
The girl's 31-year-old mother told police she forgot to drop the infant off at a baby sitter at 7 a.m. Monday before going to work in Kaneohe. Even when she went to her second job at YMCA Windward Branch in Kailua, she did not notice the girl was still in the car, the woman told police.
The mother discovered her daughter at about 1:20 p.m. YMCA staff members tried unsuccessfully to revive the baby, who was taken to Castle Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
LEEWARD OAHU
Police closed the westbound lanes of the H-1 freeway for four hours yesterday after a three-vehicle collision about 8:34 a.m. just past the Pearl City offramp that critically injured two men.
H-1 westbound closed after 3-vehicle collisionPolice said a car was speeding on the shoulder of the freeway when it crashed into the rear of another car. The impact caused the second car to spin and crash into a tree.
The first car flipped on its side, slid across the westbound lanes of the freeway and crashed into the ZipLane barrier and a truck, police said.
The driver of the first car, a 28-year-old Aiea man, and driver of the second car, a 59-year-old Kailua man, were taken to the Queen's Medical Center in critical condition. Their conditions later improved to guarded.
The truck driver was not injured.
Police reopened the freeway at about 1 p.m.
[ COURTS ]
Man indicted in death of his 7-week-old son
An Oahu grand jury indicted a Salt Lake man yesterday on a charge of second-degree murder for allegedly causing the death of his 7-week-old son.Derrick Smith, 33, was caring for his son Oct. 9 when he claimed he accidentally dropped Kelbey Bridenstine onto the floor of their Ala Ilima Street home. The baby allegedly landed headfirst.
Smith told police that after the infant fell, he noticed blood coming from his nose. He said he shook the baby a little, called 911 and started cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
The medical examiner, however, ruled out accidental trauma or death, saying the infant died of "abusive head trauma."
Smith has lived in Hawaii for three years and has no permanent address.
He is being held in lieu of $150,000 bail.
Sia denied medical furlough from prison
A federal judge has denied former isle banker Sukamto Sia's request to be furloughed for medical reasons and his sentence terminated so he can be deported to Singapore.Sia, who was convicted in October 2001 of bankruptcy fraud and conspiring to defraud the Bank of Honolulu, has served about 19 months of a 36-month term at the Giles Dalby Institution Center Correctional Facility in Texas.
Sia had requested last month that he be furloughed so he can undergo surgery for a tumor in his parathyroid glands, and that he be immediately deported to Singapore after surgery so he may recover. He said he can no longer put off the surgery but cannot have it performed because he is incarcerated.
The government opposed his request. Sia was diagnosed with the tumor in April 2001 and scheduled for surgery in July 2001 when he was out on bail but he elected not to do it, prosecutors argued.
In an order issued Friday, U.S. District Judge David Ezra ruled that the court did not have the authority to grant medical furlough and that the decision is up to the warden. He said Sia has not shown that he has exhausted administrative procedures to obtain a furlough or shown any evidence of his current medical condition or that he has tried to obtain medical treatment from the Bureau of Prisons.
The facility where Sia is serving his term has a hospital that provides full medical service. Prison records also show that he has not indicated any recent concerns about his health.
Honolulu Police Department Crimestoppers
