Kalapana rampage suspect appears in court

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JOHN BURNETT/Tribune-Herald Thomas Ryan Kilborn appears in Hilo District Court Wednesday with Deputy Public Defender Patrick Munoz.
KILBORN
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A man accused of a vehicular rampage Sunday in Kalapana that left a 28-year-old woman with life-threatening injuries and a would-be good Samaritan with a fractured hip was ordered Wednesday by a judge to appear for a preliminary hearing at 2:30 p.m. Friday.

Thomas Ryan Kilborn, 36, of Portland, Ore., is charged with attempted second-degree murder, two counts each of first-degree robbery, first-degree theft, unauthorized control of a stolen vehicle and property damage, plus leaving the scene of an accident involving serious injury and driving without a license.

Hilo District Judge Kanani Laubach maintained Kilborn’s bail at $704,010. Kilborn remains in custody at Hawaii Community Correctional Center.

According to court documents filed by police, the victim yelled that someone was stealing her car, bringing the woman’s boyfriend out of his grandfather’s Ole Ole Street home.

The boyfriend reportedly told police by the time he went outside, the girlfriend told him the man, later identified as Kilborn, had already stolen the vehicle and driven away.

Police say the boyfriend used another car to hunt down the stolen vehicle, a Toyota Corolla, which he reportedly saw turning eastbound onto Ole Ole from Kii Nani Street and headed toward Highway 137.

The boyfriend reportedly told police he made a U-turn in the car he was driving when the driver of the stolen car struck his car before driving away on Ole Ole.

The woman’s boyfriend told officers he then saw the driver of the stolen vehicle cross a double-solid yellow line, cross into an opposing lane and drive toward his girlfriend, who was standing on a grassy area off the roadway near Highway 137, documents state.

The boyfriend reported Kilborn struck the woman with enough force to send her hurtling onto the highway. He allegedly then backed up and struck her again.

An emergency room doctor at Hilo Medical Center told police the woman suffered significant brain hemorrhaging, bleeding in the chest cavity, spinal fractures and paralysis of her lower extremities. The woman was flown to The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu for further treatment, where she remained on a ventilator in critical condition, documents state.

A witness driving a Nissan Titan pickup truck also told police he saw the stolen vehicle hit the woman, according to documents.

The witness stopped to check on the woman and yelled for someone to call 911 when Kilborn reportedly got into the Nissan pickup truck to steal it. The truck’s owner then jumped into the bed of the truck and started to beat on its roof and yell at Kilborn — who was driving at a high rate of speed — to stop.

The truck’s owner told police when the vehicle slowed down, he was able to jump out. The man was later determined to have suffered a fractured hip.

The truck owner told police he was then picked up by a passerby who drove to Kookoolau Place, where they saw the truck about 30 or 40 yards into a lava field at the end of the roadway and damaged. They also observed a damaged Nissan Rogue, whose owner, a woman, told police the driver of the stolen truck had hit her car from behind, documents state.

Police say they pursued Kilborn briefly and captured him after he got out of the Titan and attempted to flee on foot.

Documents state Kilborn has one prior felony conviction.

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.