The Maui News
WAILUKU Bail was reduced to $10,000 for a Hana man who is facing charges alleging he forged checks to steal nearly $50,000 from his grandparents.
Joshua Kamai, 29, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree theft, 17 counts of second-degree forgery and second-degree theft.
The forgeries and theft occurred from April to September last year, according to the complaint against Kamai. He also is charged with theft of cash, food and cigarettes valued at more than $750 from Hana Ranch Store on Sept. 12.
Kamai, who was arrested last week, appeared by videoconference from the Maui Community Correctional Center for his bail hearing Tuesday in 2nd Circuit Court.
Miro-Quesada
WAILUKU Two police officers testified they were injured when they were both hit on the head with a weapon while struggling to detain a man who fled after smashing the window of a security vehicle last week.
It was only after Cesar Miro-Quesada was handcuffed that police realized the weapon he had been wielding was a metal pipe.
“To everyone’s surprise, it wasn’t a wooden stick at all,” said Wailuku patrol officer Scott McCalister. “It was a metal pipe packed with mud that had a slight bend to it.”
McCalister and fellow officer Sonnie Waiohu Jr. testified Wednesday at a preliminary hearing in Wailuku District Court for Miro-Quesada, 28, of Lahaina.
lfujimoto@mauinews.com
WAILUKU A Wailuku man was stopped for driving without a license before police seized quantities of drugs in a search of his vehicle last week, a police officer testified Wednesday.
Robert Cramer, 37, was charged with three counts of first-degree promotion of a dangerous drug, four counts of possessing drug paraphernalia, second-degree promotion of a detrimental drug, driving while his license was suspended or revoked and driving without a license.
At a preliminary hearing in Wailuku District Court, Crime Reduction Unit officer Adam Akau said police stopped Cramer in a pickup truck at 1:25 p.m. Feb. 18 near the park-and-ride at Kuihelani Highway and Puunene Avenue.
lfujimoto@mauinews.com
WAILUKU A man convicted of burglarizing two homes and illegally possessing a shotgun and drugs was sentenced Tuesday to an 18-month jail term as part of four years’ probation.
In sentencing Jacob Baylosis, 38, of Makawao, 2nd Circuit Judge Peter Cahill acknowledged comments by a couple who had more than $70,000 in property stolen from their home in Haiku while they hid in a closet in August 2018.
After at first not being able to purchase homeowners insurance following the burglary, the couple said they are paying $2,000 a year more for insurance. The husband said he lost “a lot of things you couldn’t put a price on” when his laptop was stolen. “If there’s a way to get some restitution, that would help,” he said, appearing by videoconference for the hearing.