Posted on: Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Pearl City man dies in fight over noise

By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer

A 46-year-old man upset that loud noises from a neighbor's bedroom were keeping his daughter awake died after a fight with a sailor living next door.

Patrol officers responding to the Century Park Plaza on Kamehameha Highway in Pearl City around 2:30 a.m. yesterday found Michael Gillum lying in a fifth-floor hallway. He was taken to Pali Momi Medical Center, where he died.

The City Medical Examiner's office said Gillum died of blunt trauma to the front and back of the head.

Police said no weapon was used and no eyewitnesses have come forward. Officers found blood stains in the hallway.

Kendall Edmonds, 22, a bosun's mate 2nd class assigned to the Transient Personnel Unit at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, was arrested outside Apt. 504-A after he told police he and Gillum had fought.

Edmonds, from Bessamer, Ala., entered the Navy in 2001 and served on the USS Reuben James until March, said Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis.

It is up to Honolulu police and the city prosecutor to decide Edmonds' immediate fate, Davis said, adding that the Navy was aware of the arrest and that Edmonds would be subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice as well as local laws.

According to police, Gillum was concerned that his adolescent daughter couldn't sleep because of loud noises coming from Edmond's bedroom, on the other side of his bedroom wall. Gillum began pounding on the wall, then went next door to confront Edmonds alone.

"We are going off (Edmond's) admission to patrol officers" about what happened, said HPD Homicide Lt. Bill Kato.

Edmonds told police that he went back to his apartment after the fight, leaving Gillum in the hallway. When police arrived, Edmonds emerged from his apartment and told police about the fight.

Gillum's daughter told police she heard the fight but did not go outside to look. Police said they were called by the daughter, who is now in the care of her mother's family.

Edmonds lived with his girlfriend and a small child.

Building security guards had been called about an argument on the fifth floor, but were unable to tell police who notified them because they could not trace the call.

Reach Peter Boylan at 535-8110 or pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.