Kona man charged with robbery, assault

A Kona man is in police custody after being charged with seven offenses stemming from two vehicle break-ins, according to the Hawaii Police Department.

On Sept. 24, Kona Patrol officers responded to a condominium on the 75-5700 block of Kuakini Highway. A 51-year-old Pahoa man reported that his pickup truck had been broken into while it was parked at the condo and that items valued at $447 had been removed, police said.

Police investigation 27-year-old Jeffrey Kaimi Keanaaina of Kailua-Kona as a suspect. He was located in Kailua-Kona on Wednesday afternoon, arrested and taken to the Kona police cellblock while Area II Criminal Investigations Section detectives continued the investigation.

Keanaaina was also a suspect in an unrelated investigation. On the morning of Sept. 21, a 33-year-old Kailua-Kona woman reported that she saw a man remove her purse from her pickup truck, which was parked at a restaurant on Hulikoa Drive in Kailua-Kona. She and her husband confronted the man, who got into a pickup truck next to theirs, tried to punch the woman, dropped the purse and fled by reversing the truck with the door still open, according to police. The victim became wedged between her truck and the open door of the truck the suspect was driving. She was treated at the scene for her injuries, but did not require hospitalization, police said.

Police determined that the truck the suspect was driving had been reported as stolen from Haleolono Street in Kailua-Kona on Sept. 20.

At 10:30 a.m. Friday, detectives charged Keanaaina with robbery, assault, unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle, two counts of unauthorized entry of a motor vehicle and two counts of theft. His bail was set at $76,000. He remains at the cellblock pending his initial court appearance scheduled for Monday.