Police say a 34-year-old Pahoa man was arrested after he was discovered passed out in a stolen car early Thursday morning.
Brooklin K. Mahuka was charged with unauthorized control of a stolen vehicle.
During Mahuka’s initial court appearance Friday, Hilo District Judge Kanani Laubach denied a request by Mahuka’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Megan Fellows, to grant him court-supervised release without cash bail.
Laubach ordered Mahuka to return at 2 p.m. Tuesday for a preliminary hearing.
Mahuka remained in custody at Hawaii Community Correctional Center as of late Friday afternoon in lieu of $2,000 bail.
Unauthorized control of a stolen vehicle is a Class C felony punishable by up to five years imprisonment upon conviction. Mahuka has no prior felony convictions.
According to police, at about 5:15 a.m. Thursday, a citizen flagged down a patrol officer in Nanawale Estates to report an unfamiliar white car parked on Lehua Road with a man asleep in the driver’s seat. A license plate check of the Mazda Protégé revealed the car was reported stolen on June 22 from the parking lot of a Hilo business.
Hilo patrol officers previously saw the stolen vehicle in Keaukaha. The driver, however, successfully evaded them at the time, police said.
Mahuka also was charged with contempt of court for missing a proof of compliance hearing on a misdemeanor domestic abuse conviction for which he is on two years probation. He pleaded no contest Friday to the contempt charge, a petty misdemeanor, and was sentenced to a day in jail, time already served.
Detectives also are investigating as domestic abuse an alleged assault of a family member by Mahuka on Wednesday, police said.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
