Posted on: Sunday, April 20, 2003

Suspect in ex-Hawai'i man's death served time for DUI

By Ken Ritter
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — A man accused of driving under the influence when he ran over and killed a former Hawai'i man bicycling with his son had five previous drunken-driving convictions in New Mexico, according to prosecutors.

"We're confident that he's DUI," Deputy Clark County District Attorney Gary Booker told Justice of the Peace Ann Zimmerman on Friday. The judge granted authorities time to get the results of blood tests for alcohol and drugs and file charges against Michael Krivak.

Krivak is accused of driving into Chris Holt, 44, on Tuesday while Holt bicycled in his residential neighborhood with his 8-year-old son, Chance. The boy was hurt, but is recovering.

Booker said prosecutors might seek a murder charge if evidence shows that Chris Holt was alive while Krivak's pickup truck proceeded for about a mile with Holt sprawled on its hood. Witnesses reported that Krivak stopped, pulled Holt from the hood, and ran over him as he drove away.

A native of Hawai'i, Holt attended Kaimuki High School and graduated from Hilo High School in 1976 before moving to the Mainland in the late 1980s. He was the cousin of former Hawai'i state Sen. Milton Holt and hula teacher Vicky Holt Takamine.

Thomas Johnson Jr., 22, told a disc jockey during an on-air interview Thursday that he and Krivak were drunk and that he remembered seeing "some people on bikes or something."

"I don't know if whether I passed out or blacked out," Johnson said. "When I finally came to and started realizing what he said, it was something about, 'I just killed somebody. Look at the windshield.' "

Police said Johnson, who has been cooperating with investigators, probably would not face criminal charges.

Krivak, a construction worker, stood in shackles and a jail jumpsuit, speaking only to tell the judge that he understood the delay. He was not represented by a lawyer.

In separate hearings Friday, Krivak also waived extradition to New Mexico to face charges on two felony warrants — a parole violation and assault on a sheriff's deputy in San Juan County.

Prosecutors said Krivak, whose criminal history dates from 1983, was convicted five times of driving under the influence since 1992 in Hobbs and Aztec, N.M. He was paroled in December after serving 10 months in a New Mexico prison. He is being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas.

A Holt family spokesman said funeral arrangements were being made, but no date had been set.