HILO — Trial for the mother of Peter Kema Jr., aka “Peter Boy,” has been postponed until next year.
Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara on Monday granted Jaylin Kema’s request to delay her trial for her 6-year-old son’s 1997 death until 8:30 a.m. Jan. 30.
The 46-year-old Kema and her 45-year-old husband, Peter Kema Sr., are charged with second-degree murder in the most notorious missing child-turned-murder case in Hawaii history. That trial was to have started Aug. 22.
Both Kemas were indicted by a Hilo grand jury in April, about 19 years after Peter Boy’s disappearance. Social workers documented years of abuse of the boy, who went missing sometime in late spring or early summer 1997. His mother didn’t officially report his disappearance until January 1998 after prompting by a social worker and police.
Peter Kema Sr. told authorities in August 1997 he left Peter Boy with a longtime family friend, “Aunty Rose Makuakane,” at Aala Park in downtown Honolulu.
Authorities couldn’t find any evidence the woman exists, didn’t believe Kema’s story, and found no plane tickets to corroborate his account.
Hara also granted Jaylin Kema’s request to postpone a separate trial for second-degree theft in a welfare fraud case until 8:30 a.m. Jan. 23. That trial, for allegedly collecting more than $17,000 in public assistance benefits she wasn’t entitled to between May 2010 and July 2015, was to have started Monday. The alleged theft was uncovered because of the murder investigation, prosecutors have said.
The judge set aside six weeks for the murder trial — which is now scheduled on the same date as a murder trial for Sean Rutledge, a 41-year-old man accused of fatally stabbing his mother, Nadean Rutledge, Aug. 25 outside her Kapoho home. Only one of those trials can be held at that time.
The judge scheduled a week of time for Jaylin Kema’s theft trial.
Hara won’t be hearing either case if trials do occur, as he’s set to retire at the end of the year.
Jaylin Kema is in custody at Hawaii Community Correctional Center. A motion to reduce her $150,000 bail is set to be heard at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 18.
Peter Kema Sr.’s murder trial is scheduled for 9 a.m. Sept. 19 before Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura, although it’s expected to be delayed, as well, because of the extensive amount of discovery in the case. He’s in custody at HCCC in lieu of $500,000 bail.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
