KAILUA-KONA — Hawaii Island police are asking for the public’s assistance with locating a 32-year-old Pahoa man who is wanted on an outstanding grand jury warrant after indictment for negligent homicide first-degree and three outstanding bench warrants.
Justin James Clark is described as being 6 feet, 3 inches tall, weighing 180 pounds, with a light complexion, slim build and light brown hair. Clark is known to frequent the Puna and South Hilo districts, according to the Hawaii Police Department.
Clark was arrested Jan. 5, 2017, on suspicion of DUI, driving without a license and driving without insurance in connection with a crash that left one person dead. He was later released pending further investigation.
According to police, officers responding to a 6:54 p.m. Jan. 5, 2017, call determined that a 2004 Ford pickup truck was Kalapana-bound on Highway 130 between Leilani Avenue and Malama Street and had been making a U-turn on the roadway when it was struck by a 1998 Pahoa-bound Ford passenger van driven by Clark.
The 50-year-old man who was killed was a back-seat passenger in the pickup truck. He was pronounced dead at Hilo Medical Center.
Police identified the victim as 37-year-old Michael Simmons of O’Brien, Oregon.
An adult female back-seat passenger in the pickup was taken to Hilo Medical Center, as was a 65-year-old Pahoa woman who was a back-seat passenger in the van. A 7-year-old Pahoa girl, a front-seat passenger in the van, was flown to Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu.
The driver of the pickup, a 74-year old Pahoa woman, was treated for her injuries at the scene.
According to court records, Clark was sentenced May 29, 2014, to four years probation for second-degree arson after torching a vacant Hawaiian Acres home on April 6, 2013, and for possessing drug paraphernalia in a separate case. In return for his no contest pleas, prosecutors dropped a charge of third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug and reduced a first-degree arson charge.
Police ask anyone with any information regarding his whereabouts to call Area I Traffic Enforcement Unit Officer Erhard Autrata at (808) 961-2329, or the Police Department’s non-emergency line at (808) 935-3311.
