3 charged with attempted murder following Kona assault

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Lama Lauvao
Wesley Samoa
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KAILUA-KONA — A man remains in critical condition following an assault that occurred early Monday morning in the parking lot of the Kona Seaside Hotel.

Hawaii Police Department Maj. Robert Wagner said Tuesday that the victim, a 63-year-old security guard, is currently on Oahu receiving treatment for “severe, life-threatening injuries.”

Police responded to a report of an assault about 12:30 a.m. Monday, where they found the security guard lying on the ground. Officers determined through preliminary investigation that the assault occurred after a confrontation between the victim and four people occupying a sports utility vehicle.

The security guard asked them to turn their music down.

Of the vehicle’s four occupants, three were involved in the assault. Police identified the three as 30-year-old Wesley Samoa of Kona, 30-year-old Lama Lauvao of Honolulu and 41-year-old Natisha Tautalatasi, also of Honolulu.

On Monday afternoon, all three were charged with second-degree attempted murder. Bond was set at $250,000 for each alleged assailant. Wagner said they will all likely be arraigned in Kona sometime today.

The penalty for second-degree attempted murder is life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.

A fourth occupant of the car, 33-year-old Mahealani Kanehailua of Kona, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Wagner said she did not participate in the assault and has not been charged in the violent incident.

Samoa, Lauvao and Tautalatasi all have criminal histories. Samoa has been convicted most recently of third-degree assault in July 2017 and has been charged several other times for different offenses in the past.

Lauvao was charged with accomplice to robbery on Oahu in 2009, among other run-ins with law enforcement.

Tautalatasi, along with multiple other criminal incidents stretching back to 1997, pleaded guilty to second-degree promoting a dangerous drug on Oahu in 2007.