A 19-year-old Honokaa man and 24-year-old Keaau woman who police say were involved in a recent rash of auto thefts appeared Thursday in Hilo District Court.
Judge Robert Crudele ordered Christian Henry Olivera and Jasmine Jane Saragosa-Taoy to appear at 2 p.m. Monday for a preliminary hearing. A police task force developed to address what police called “the alarming number of auto thefts” arrested the pair without incident Tuesday afternoon at a Hawaiian Paradise Park home.
Olivera is charged with first-degree robbery for allegedly carjacking a 2013 Subaru BRZ near the corner of Papalele and Kalopa roads in Honokaa. He’s also charged with property damage, two counts of terroristic threatening, three counts of resisting an order to stop and 13 counts of driving a stolen vehicle.
Saragosa-Taoy is charged with hindering prosecution, two counts each of credit card theft and unauthorized possession of confidential personal information. She’s also charged with being an accomplice to Olivera in one count each of terroristic threatening and property damage and three counts of driving a stolen vehicle.
Deputy Public Defender Isaac Ickes asked the judge to grant Olivera supervised release or reduce his $600,000 bail.
“We do realize that the number of pending charges may cause alarm to the court, as well as the fact that Mr. Olivera may have other pending matters,” Ickes said. “However, with bail five times the normal amount for Class C felonies, we would submit that this would be excessive bail in violation of Mr. Olivera’s rights under the Eighth Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution.
Deputy Prosecutor Leneigha Downs agreed the bail is high but requested it be maintained.
“There are crimes of violence alleged … one being robbery and the other terroristic threatening,” Downs said. “It is the state’s information that the defendant was on supervised release on escape from Oahu when these allegations arose. Further, the number and seriousness of the charges, I think, mandate extraordinary treatment.”
Crudele reduced Olivera’s bail to $245,000 and maintained Saragosa-Taoy’s bail at $115,000.
The 13 vehicles allegedly were stolen between May 28 and July 9, with thefts allegedly occurring in the Puna, Hilo, Hamakua, South Kohala and Kona districts.
According to court documents, Olivera admitted to being the masked carjacker in the Honokaa incident, allegedly telling police he pointed a “simulated firearm” and ordered the 18-year-old man driving the Subaru to put up his hands and get out of the vehicle, and then drove away in the man’s car.
Documents state Olivera also led police on two chases Saturday in East Hawaii in a red Honda Civic coupe reported stolen from Kona the previous day.
At about 11 a.m., according to documents, Officer Jerome Duarte spotted the stolen Honda at about the 13-mile marker on Highway 19, north of Hilo. When the officer turned on his blue lights and siren in an attempt to stop the car, a front-seat passenger police say was Saragosa-Taoy started throwing objects out of the passenger-side window in front of Duarte’s taxpayer-subsidized police vehicle. According to documents, those objects included a large wheel bearing, two exhaust pipes and a small can.
Documents state Duarte curtailed the chase out of concerns of objects in the roadway that could cause a possible collision.
Officer Jared Cabatu also reportedly encountered the Honda at the corner of Puainako and Komohana streets in Hilo. According to documents, Cabatu recognized Olivera as the driver and attempted to stop the car.
Cabatu reportedly stopped the pursuit after seeing the Honda pass other vehicles “at a high rate of speed, disregarding the safety of others.”
Police say the newly formed task force will continue to focus its attention on dismantling organized groups responsible for stealing cars, and ask anyone with information about these incidents or any stolen vehicles to call the police nonemergency line at 935-3111 or Crime Stoppers at 961-8300.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
