For comparison, that is more than three times the legal limit of 0.08 percent established for automobile drivers.

The autopsy on Adamson, listed under his legal name William Stuart Adamson, said he died of asphyxiation from strangulation, said Dr. Kanthi von Guenthner of the city medical examiner's office.

Adamson, lead singer of the 1980s band Big Country, was found Dec. 16 in his room at the Best Western Plaza Hotel near the airport. He had hung himself in the closet.

Diving accident victim identified

A 38-year-old woman who died in a diving accident Tuesday has been identified as Vanessa D. Franklin of 'Ewa Beach.

She was an Army staff sergeant, according to the city medical examiner's office.

Police said Franklin had been diving with friends at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday off Kahe Point Beach Park. Her diving partners found her in the water, unresponsive.

Resuscitation was attempted before she was taken to St. Francis Medical Center West, where she was pronounced dead.

Two Marines confess to 3 robberies

Two Kane‘ohe Marines suspected of more than a dozen armed robberies during the past month confessed to three of the robberies, a police detective testified in District Court yesterday.

Detective Joyce Alapa said William Linwood IV and Antwain Salters each confessed independently to the gunpoint robbery of the Stadium Mall Foodmart store Jan. 13 and to holding up a Waipahu 7-Eleven store and a Kapiolani Boulevard adult video store Jan. 18.

District Judge Faauuga Tootoo ruled there is sufficient evidence to send the case to a Circuit Court trial. They are to be arraigned Feb. 7. Linwood and Salters, who are assigned to Marine Corps Base Hawaii, KÅne‘ohe Bay, are each being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

$25,000 damage in Ha'iku home fire

A two-bedroom house in Ha'iku, Maui, sustained $25,000 in structural damage in a fire Wednesday.

Engine companies from Pa'ia, Makawao and Kahului responded to the 7:16 a.m. alarm. The fire, reported at 411-C W. Kuiaha Road, was extinguished at 8:31 a.m.

Pursuit of driver ruled justified

State officials have cleared the actions of deputy sheriffs whose pursuit of a driver in Mapunapuna last month ended with the driver's death after he fell from the airport viaduct.

Ted Sakai, director of the state Department of Public Safety, said the department's internal affairs office has closed the investigation largely because the autopsy on Melvin Vigilla indicated he had a blood-alcohol level of more than twice the legal limit.

The city medical examiner's office listed his blood-alcohol level at 0.185 percent. The legal limit for someone operating a motor vehicle is .08 percent.

In the Dec. 4 incident, the deputies began pursuing Vigilla when he was seen driving erratically. During the chase, he crashed into parked cars and then drove the wrong way on Nimitz Highway, crashing his truck on the freeway offramp. He fell to the highway when trying to leap from the offramp onto the viaduct.

Waialua man dies in traffic accident

The city medical examiner's office yesterday identified a 48-year-old Waialua man as the victim of a fatal traffic accident Wednesday night.

Elvin M. Nicely was killed when a motorcycle he was riding was struck by a pickup truck at a Waialua intersection.