A 33-year-old Waimea man awaiting trial on charges stemming from a 2012 traffic collision in Hamakua that killed two women and injured seven other people pleaded not guilty Thursday to burglarizing a Waimea home late last year.
Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara on Thursday ordered Alfred Berdon III to appear for trial at 9 a.m. Jan. 12 in Kona Circuit Court.
Berdon was indicted Sept. 14 by a Kona grand jury on a charge of first-degree burglary, a Class B felony carrying a possible 10-year prison term upon conviction, and arrested Thursday at Hawaii Community Correctional Center. According to the indictment, on Nov. 10, 2014, Berdon “entered or remained unlawfully” at 64-613 Puuohu Place in Waimea “with intent to commit theft … and recklessly disregarded that the building was a dwelling of another.”
Hara maintained bail for Berdon at $10,000 on the burglary charge. According to a police spokeswoman, money and alcohol were taken.
Berdon is awaiting trial for a Sept. 10, 2012, collision on Hawaii Belt Road (Highway 19) near Kalopa that killed two Keaau women, 61-year-old Josefina Visaya and 54-year-old Patrocinia Cadang.
The women were landscapers from Puna Certified Nursery returning home from a job in Waikoloa.
Police say Berdon was driving a pickup and collided with the van the women were riding in while attempting to pass. The van was run off the road and went down a 15-foot embankment. In addition to the two women killed, three other women were critically injured in the crash, and four other people sustained less serious injuries, police said.
The driver of the van, Efren Chavez, sustained minor injuries. Berdon, whom police said was driving after his license had been suspended and without insurance, wasn’t injured in the crash.
Berdon is charged with two counts each of first-degree negligent homicide, first-degree negligent injury and second-degree negligent injury. He was free on $32,000 bail when the alleged burglary occurred, but his family surrendered his bail four days later, and he has been in custody since.
Deputy Prosecutor Rick Damerville said in September 2012 Berdon tested positive the day after the crash for THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, and oxycodone, a semi-synthetic opioid painkiller marketed as Oxycontin.
“That is only based on a urine test,” Damerville cautioned at the time. “That’s a presumptive test; it’s not a lab test.”
County Prosecutor Mitch Roth declined to disclose the results of Berdon’s toxicology reports when Berdon was indicted by a Hilo grand jury in May 2014.
There is no trial date set in the negligent homicide case. The next court hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Oct. 30 before Hara.
On July 29, Hara granted Government Employees Insurance Co. a $100,000 default civil judgment against Berdon, plus $415 in fees and costs. According to GEICO’s suit, the insurer paid $100,000 to Visaya’s estate.
Visaya’s family endured a second tragedy when her 66-year-old husband, Cenon Visaya, was killed Sept. 27, 2013, when a pickup truck driven by a man witnesses say was racing with another pickup crossed the median of Volcano Highway (Highway 11) in Keaau and smashed into the bicycle the elderly man was riding.
The truck’s driver, Siaiku Lucky Aholelei, was sentenced in October 2014 to 10 years in prison after pleading no contest to negligent homicide.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.