A child is the state’s principal witness to a Halloween night homicide in a Hilo housing project.
A child is the state’s principal witness to a Halloween night homicide in a Hilo housing project.
According to court documents filed by police, the suspect, 31-year-old Kallen Imade of Mountain View, went to a Hema Street home in the Lanakila housing area at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday, looking for his former girlfriend.
Documents state Imade called out a derogatory name and 49-year-old Alfred Vea Jr. came out of the home to talk to Imade.
The witness reportedly told police Vea and the suspect, whom the child later identified as Imade from a photo lineup, assumed fighting stances and Imade kicked the older man once to the lower leg.
Imade and Vea then grabbed each other, and Vea fell backward about four or five feet down an embankment and struck his head on the ground in a parking lot, the witness reportedly said.
According to police, the witness said Imade walked away from an unconscious Vea, who was taken to Hilo Medical Center for treatment and later flown to The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu with a cracked skull and bleeding on the brain.
Imade turned himself in to police Tuesday morning after they released a wanted bulletin asking for public information on his whereabouts.
Vea died of his injuries Wednesday morning, and Imade was charged that night with manslaughter.
Imade made a brief court appearance Thursday afternoon. Hilo District Judge Andrew Wilson ordered him to return for a preliminary hearing at 2 p.m. on Monday.
Deputy Prosecutor Joseph Lee said afterward the homicide is “not an ordinary case.”
“The facts are not what you would normally see,” Lee said, and declined to elaborate. Lee told the Tribune-Herald that Vea’s family, several of whom were at Thursday’s arraignment, didn’t want to speak yet publicly.
According to documents, Vea and Imade didn’t know each other.
Imade doesn’t have any prior felony convictions, but has an ongoing felony case for third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug, drug paraphernalia and firearms, according to court records.
He was free on $5,000 bail when the alleged attack occurred.
He also has a trial scheduled for Nov. 16 before Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara on a bail-jumping charge filed in July.
Imade made his initial court appearance in custody in lieu of $250,000 bail.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.