A judge on Friday maintained bail at $261,000 for a 20-year-old Puna man accused of threatening a 38-year-old man with a firearm earlier this month and discharging the weapon multiple times.
Hilo District Judge Jeffrey Hawk also ordered Noa A.K. Lolohea of Hawaiian Paradise Park to return Tuesday for a preliminary hearing.
Lolohea is charged with methamphetamine possession, two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and/or ammunition, carrying a loaded firearm on a public roadway, illegally carrying a handgun, first-degree terroristic threatening, first-degree reckless endangering, fourth-degree theft, habitual property crime, driving without a license and failure to appear.
The most serious offenses, the firearms charges, are all Class B felonies that carry a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment, upon conviction.
Deputy Public Defender Paul Billinson — who was pinch-hitting because court-appointed attorney Ivan Van Leer was unable to appear — requested that Lolohea be freed on supervised release, a form of cashless bail.
Deputy Prosecutor Andrew Son objected to Billinson’s motion, and Hawk denied the request for release.
The Hawaii Police Department’s Special Response Team — the department’s SWAT unit — executed a search warrant Wednesday on Lolohea’s 29th Avenue home Wednesday morning, assisted by East Hawaii’s Criminal Investigation Division and Vice Section.
For public safety, a portion of 29th Avenue was temporarily closed during the operation.
Lolohea, who was being sought for the firearm threatening incident, which allegedly occurred Sept. 17, had left the house prior to the police’s arrival. He was located later Wednesday morning on Milo Street in Keaau, where he was arrested without incident.
Officers also arrested Kennedy Miyasato of Hilo, who police described as an acquaintance of Lolohea, and charged her with first-degree hindering prosecution, a Class C felony punishable by up to five years imprisonment, upon conviction.
Miyasato also made her initial court appearance on Friday.
Hawk granted her supervised release, over the objection of prosecutors, who requested her bail be maintained at $10,000, noting she has an active drug and DUI case in Hilo Circuit Court.
The judge ordered Miyasato to return to court Oct. 16 for a preliminary hearing.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
