HILO — A 32-year-old homeless man was found guilty Friday of damaging the statue of King Kamehameha the Great on Hilo’s Bayfront and stealing the top portion of the statue’s bronze spear during last year’s Labor Day holiday weekend.
After a two-week trial, a Hilo Circuit Court jury deliberated for about five hours over two days before returning guilty verdicts against William Roy Carroll III to charges of second- and third-degree theft and second-degree criminal property damage.
Carroll will face a possible five-year prison term when he is sentenced by Judge Glenn Hara.
“I think it’s justice for the victims and justice for the community,” said Deputy Prosecutor Haaheo Kahoohalahala.
Carroll earlier rejected a plea deal in which he would receive probation and time already served in jail, and wouldn’t be assessed a fine or ordered to pay restitution.
In her closing argument to the jury Thursday, Kahoohalahala said Carroll made a conscious effort to steal a 40-foot length of chain from Bayfront Motors, drag it across Pauahi Street and the Bayside Chevron premises to the statue, where he used the chain to break the top portion of the spear from the statue. He then hid the spear and chain in some tall grass by a flood canal behind the statue, where the items weren’t found until two days later.
“As significant as this statue is, he knew exactly what he was doing,” Kahoohalahala said. “… The defendant did not intend to return (the spear) unless he got some kind of reward or compensation of it.”
In his close, Deputy Public Defender Patrick Munoz told the jury, “This was an important, culturally significant case, and yet it took two days for an investigation to begin. It took two days for the crime scene to be compromised by rain. It took two days for no one to be at the crime scene.”
Munoz also told the jury that video footage obtained from Bayside Chevron wasn’t good enough for viewers to identify the faces of two men in the images and didn’t show anything happening to the statue. He said prosecutors built their case on “incomplete circumstantial evidence.” Munoz added police were so certain Carroll was the culprit they didn’t pay to have evidence tested or the video enhanced, something he said could be done on “a common iPhone.”
“Budgetary concerns and half of an investigation should never be the reason an innocent man is convicted,” Munoz said repeatedly.
The spear was reported missing from the iconic statue in the Wailoa River State Recreation Area by a tour guide on Sunday, Sept. 6. The guide, Yutaka Wada, testified the spear was intact the previous day.
Sheldon Fujiwara, a private security guard who works at the downtown Hilo welfare office, told the jury Carroll came into the office Sept. 10 wearing “a red and white mask, probably from Halloween.” He said Carroll removed the mask when asked to do so. Fujiwara said Carroll also was wearing “the type of chain they secure property with, the big chain links.”
“He was wearing it around his neck; it was wrapped around a couple of times,” Fujiwara said.
Fujiwara said Carroll talked to him and a couple of other people while in the office.
“He was saying how the government was corrupt, you know, and … the police can’t seem to find who did the spear,” Fujiwara testified. “And that’s when I said, ‘Somebody must’ve seen this happen. … And that’s when he came out and said, ‘Oh, you know who did it?’ And I was, like, no. And he said, ‘It was me.’”
Fujiwara said he called Crime Stoppers.
Kate Carvalho, the Tribune-Herald’s operations manager, testified that Carroll came to the newspaper’s office that week, as well.
“He asked about how much the reward would be if it was recovered. And I told him that according to the article it would be up to $1,000,” she said.
“After you told him that the reward was $1,000, did he say anything about the amount?” Kahoohalahala asked.
“He said, ‘$1,000 for that?’ And I reiterated … the article said it could be up to $1,000,” Carvalho replied.
Hilo Patrol Officer Randall Hancock said he encountered Carroll twice in less than two days before the spear was severed and stolen, at Karma nightclub and on Kamehameha Avenue in Hilo. Although facial features weren’t visible in the black-and-white surveillance video, Hancock told jurors he identified Carroll in the images by “his size, his build, the clothes he was wearing, his gait” and from his haircut.
Lt. Greg Esteban of Hilo Criminal Investigations Section said he found the spear Sept. 8, two days after it was reported missing, by taking a drive on the road behind the statue and looking for clues in an overgrown, grassy area along the flood canal that runs from the Wailoa River to near Pauahi Street.
“I saw … a pretty defined trail,” he said. “… I saw something that was obviously out of place. It was sort of an elongated object that was wrapped in what I thought was a cloth material. What’s interesting is that it was also wrapped in a length of chain. … Come to find out what I thought was a cloth material was the lower portion of a palm frond.”
Robert “Bobby” Yamada II, local chapter treasurer of the Kamehameha Schools Alumni Association, which owns and maintains the statue, testified he was “outraged” when he found the spear was missing. He estimated damage to the statue’s spear, plus the chest and feet area, was about $6,000, not including at least $2,500 in labor and equipment. He said all services, equipment and labor were donated, including that of Wes Hammond, the artist and metalworker who repaired the spear.
“I was expecting a bill, but he would not give one,” Yamada said.
Carroll didn’t testify, and the defense called no witnesses.
Carroll, who remains in custody, has a plea deal on the table in a Honolulu case in which he’s charged with drunken driving plus possession of a dangerous drug and drug paraphernalia. Deputy Public Defender Zachary Wingert said earlier this month that Carroll has been offered probation and time already served in that case, as well.
He’s scheduled to be tried on those charges June 27 in Honolulu Circuit Court.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.