Hawai’i Police Division
Legal Investigation Part-Space I
Lieutenant Zachary Fernando
Telephone: (808) 961-2252
Report No.: 24-061064
Media Launch
On July 4, 2024, at roughly 3:35 p.m., South Hilo patrol officers responded to the car parking zone of a resort on Banyan Drive, in Hilo, for a reported lively car break-in.
Responding officers contacted the proprietor of the car who reported that his car’s driver facet window and door deal with had been broken. The sufferer additional associated that the inside was ransacked, nevertheless, nothing appeared to have been stolen. A witness to the incident described the suspect as an area Hawaiian male who was bareback, barefoot, and was carrying black-colored shorts. The suspect left the realm on foot in an unknown route.
Later, at roughly 4:59 p.m., South Hilo patrol officers once more responded to the resort car parking zone on Banyan Drive, in Hilo, for a report of a suspicious male get together loitering on property.
Responding officers contacted a resort safety officer who reported observing a suspicious male get together throughout the resort car parking zone, who was strolling round checking car door handles to see in the event that they had been unlocked. The safety officer then noticed the male get together to open the entrance passenger door of a parked, unoccupied, and unlocked pickup truck, and sit down on the entrance passenger seat. The male get together then started looking contained in the cab of the truck.
The safety officer approached the male get together, and requested him to depart the realm and that police will likely be known as to report his actions. The male get together exited the car, and fled the realm on foot towards the shoreline behind the resort pool space.
The proprietor of the pick-up truck was later contacted and knowledgeable officers that his car was entered with out permission and that at the least one merchandise was lacking from inside.
Officers canvassed the realm for the male get together who was situated on the shoreline behind of the resort a short while later. The male get together was positively recognized as the one who was noticed to have entered each pick-up vehicles. He was recognized as 31-year-old Makua Amituanai, of Hilo, and was arrested with out incident, for 2 counts of Unauthorized Entry Into A Motor Automobile. Amituanai was transported to the East Hawaii Detention Facility for reserving, processing, and continued investigation by detectives.
Throughout the course of the investigation, officers had been in a position to establish a backpack which was within the possession of Amituanai throughout his arrest, which was faraway from a parked car situated in a car parking zone situated on Keawe Road, in Hilo, that occurred on July 3, 2024, at roughly 11:11 p.m. A search warrant was served on the backpack ensuing within the restoration of the sufferer’s laptop computer and private property, to incorporate a number of types of identification.
On July 6, 2024, upon conferral with the County Prosecuting Lawyer’s Workplace, Amituanai was charged with the next offenses:
- First-degree unauthorized entry right into a motorized vehicle (three counts)
- Ordinary property crime (three counts)
- Second-degree theft
- Third-degree legal property injury
- Unauthorized possession of non-public confidential data
- Third-degree selling a harmful drug
Whole bail for Amituanai was set at $183,000.00
Unable to submit bail, Amituanai made his preliminary court docket look on July 8, 2024, in South Hilo District Court docket.
Police ask anybody who could have data relative to this investigation to name the police division’s non-emergency quantity at (808) 935-3311, or Detective Jeremy Kubojiri of the Space I Legal Investigation Part at (808) 961-2378, or electronic mail at [email protected].
