honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, May 22, 2008

INDICTMENT
Two teens in fatal beating indicted

By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Kelii J.B. Acasia Jr

spacer spacer
Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Benjamin Pada

spacer spacer

Two teenagers indicted yesterday on murder, robbery and assault charges in Saturday night's attack of three people in Waikiki are on probation for previous criminal convictions, according to the city prosecutor's office.

One defendant, Kelii J.B. Acasia Jr., 19, is being held in lieu of $1 million bail after the O'ahu grand jury indicted him on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of Ned Nakoa.

Acasia punched and kicked Nakoa, 58, so severely that the victim died the following morning of "massive internal bleeding in the brain," according to Deputy Prosecutor Vickie Kapp.

Acasia is on probation for a 2006 rape conviction; when the attack on Nakoa occurred, a warrant for his arrest had been outstanding for nearly two months because of alleged probation violations, court records show.

Co-defendant Benjamin Pada, 18, indicted yesterday on charges of second-degree assault and second-degree robbery, has no adult criminal record but is on probation until his 19th birthday for an unspecified juvenile criminal conviction, Kapp told Circuit Judge Derrick Chan.

Chan set Pada's bail at $100,000.

Pada allegedly stole the purse of a female tourist, Wapokunie Riel-Lachapelle, and struck her companion, Hawai'i-based Marine Lester Real, on the head with a wrench, according to Kapp.

When Nakoa, 58, tried to intercede in the fight, Acasia punched him "three to four times in the head," Kapp said.

"The victim fell to his knees" and then was "kicked in the face," the prosecutor said.

Acasia was convicted in 2006 for the August 2005 sexual assault of a youth inside the Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility when both were being held there, according to court records.

Although 16 at the time of the offense and 17 when he was charged, Acasia was tried as an adult after Family Court waived jurisdiction of him as a juvenile offender.

He was originally charged with first-degree sex assault but pleaded guilty to a reduced second-degree charge of the same offense.

Family Court Judge Frances Wong sentenced him to one year in jail plus five years of probation.

A year later, in May 2007, Acasia failed to report to his probation officer after he was released from prison and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. The warrant was served two weeks later, when police arrested Acasia on suspicion of car theft, court records show.

Wong then revoked Acasia's probation and sentenced him to serve 10 years in prison.

At the request of Acasia's attorney and over the objections of the prosecutor's office, Wong resentenced Acasia to five years' probation on March 4 of this year, according to court records.

He was enrolled in Project Hope, a program for high-risk probationers that promises swift returns to prison for violations of the rules of probation, court records show.

But Acasia failed to appear at a March 27 Project Hope hearing before Judge Steven Alm. Alm ordered another bench warrant issued for Acasia's arrest, setting bail at $20,000, files show.

What became of that warrant could not be determined yesterday. Officials from both the state Department of Public Safety and the Honolulu Police Department said they had no records of receiving the arrest warrant.

As reported previously, law enforcement agencies have a large backlog of unserved arrest warrants — more than 70,000 as of last year — but most are for relatively minor traffic court offenses. Police and sheriffs personnel said they emphasize serving arrest warrants in serious criminal cases involving felonies and parole and probation violations.

Other public records also show that Acasia, when released from prison last year and again this year, failed to update his registration information in the public database of convicted sex offenders. The current entry for Acasia, last updated in 2006, still lists him as "incarcerated."

Reach Jim Dooley at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.