Mental exam for alleged carjacker

A 28-year-old Mountain View woman accused of an alleged daylight knifepoint carjacking in downtown Hilo late last month will receive a mental examination to determine her fitness to proceed.

Hilo District Judge Barbara Takase on Monday ordered the examination for Ashley Leialoha Hamada and scheduled a hearing on the examiners’ reports for Oct. 14 at 1:30 p.m.

“Miss Hamada, last week when I spoke to you, you said you couldn’t understand … what was going on,” the judge said.

Hamada, who’s charged with first-degree robbery and second-degree theft, was arrested Aug. 29 and remains in custody in lieu of $60,000 bail. Her court-appointed attorney, Stanton Oshiro, asked the judge consider supervised release or a bail reduction.

“My client now has been in custody for some period of time and … Miss Hamada is quite anxious to begin (drug) treatment,” he said. “She does have children out there she would like to see. She’s got a relatively good employment history and she certainly is an appropriate candidate based on all of that.”

Deputy Prosecutor Sylvia Wan noted the Department of Public Safety’s Intake Service Center recommended Hamada’s bail be maintained.

“Not only is there a suspicion of illegal drug use but it does appear she was not doing well on probation,” Wan said. She added that the state arrested Hamada on a bench warrant for violating probation and a hearing is pending to set aside a deferred plea agreement on a felony credit card theft case.

The judge maintained bail for Hamada, who was taken into custody after being pulled over in a traffic stop at the Umauma Bridge north of Hilo, police said. Court documents state she was alone in the older model Toyota Corolla she had allegedly stolen from a 22-year-old man at knifepoint earlier in the day at the corner of Kamehameha Avenue and Furneaux Lane.

First-degree robbery is a Class A felony punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment.

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune- herald.com.