KEALAKEKUA — The second suspect accused in an alleged 2016 rape at Old Kona Airport Park entered a not guilty plea in 3rd Circuit Court Thursday morning.
Samuel Latrik, 18, appeared before Judge Robert D.S. Kim with defense counsel James Biven. The teen’s attorney waived reading of charges and demanded a jury trial, which has been scheduled for May 29.
Latrik has been charged with three counts of first-degree sexual assault, second-degree assault, kidnapping, second-degree robbery, third-degree sexual assault and first-degree attempted sexual assault.
Also Thursday morning, Kim wanted to address his concern regarding Latrik’s bail, which is set at $50,000. He said he reviewed the first suspect, 17-year-old Tyron Sigrah’s case, which is also before him, and while the teens have similar charges filed against them, bail for Sigrah had been reduced from $50,000 to $25,000.
Deputy Prosecutor Sheri Lawson said it was over the state’s objection that Sigrah’s bail was lowered during an initial appearance in District Court.
“The state has treated these cases exactly the same,” Lawson said.
While not to minimize the allegations, Kim said, it concerns him that the bail amounts are different.
“I want to treat defendants in pretrial status exactly the same,” the judge said. “Either Mr. Sigrah has to come up to $50,000 or we lower Mr. Latrik’s to $25,000.”
While he didn’t make any decision on it Thursday, Kim said he was inclined to lower bail to $25,000 to be fair to the defendants.
A bail hearing was scheduled for Feb. 1.
The charges stem from an incident that allegedly occurred on Sept. 3, 2016. Hawaii Police say two boys approached a woman, punched and sexually assaulted her. Police added the boys reportedly fled when confronted by an unidentified person.
Despite Latrik being an adult, the alleged crime occurred when he was a juvenile. Because of that, the case had to first be heard in Family Court where the judge eventually decided to waive jurisdiction to adult court proceedings.
Prosecutors filed multiple charges of sexual assault against the first suspect, Sigrah, in November after a Family Court judge granted a waiver of jurisdiction to adult court. In November, a District Court judge found there was probable cause during a preliminary hearing to continue the teen’s case to Circuit Court.
Sigrah is currently out on $25,000 bail but is required to check in with the Hawaii Intake Services Center.
“Not Guilty ” my okole . Sigrah and Latrik need to be deported back to Kosrae IMMEDIATELY , with no possibility of return . Kona has to weed itself of these kind of punks before that act out their gangster hip-hop emulations again . And they will , because no one in the Kosraen community appears to be taking any responsibility for getting them in line . They are wildlings , out of control . So glad ICE is tracking on this situation .
25,000 seemed fair ! Not guilty ! If convicted he should get the maximum !
USA needs to rethink our thinking on the CNMI Compact.
we are being over-run by remote atoll flight