Email Chelsea Jensen at cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com. By Chelsea Jensen ADVERTISING Stephens Media WAIMEA — A 3-year-old Waimea girl died from brain damage, a police officer testified Thursday during a preliminary hearing for the 37-year-old relative accused of killing her. “Marley Makanani
By Chelsea Jensen
Stephens Media
WAIMEA — A 3-year-old Waimea girl died from brain damage, a police officer testified Thursday during a preliminary hearing for the 37-year-old relative accused of killing her.
“Marley Makanani had anoxic brain damage due to a near drowning and a traumatic head injury due to child abuse,” said Officer Scott Kurashige, recalling a conversation he had Wednesday with forensic pathologist Kanthi De Alwis, who was unable to attend the hearing. “The contributing causes were blunt force trauma to the liver and intestines.”
Waimea District Court Judge Melvin Fujino ruled prosecutors had presented enough evidence to bind Ezekiel Ramsayer Hao Wakinekona over for trial. Wakinekona faces a manslaughter charge in the Sunday death of Makanani and two misdemeanor domestic abuse charges for alleged injuries to her sisters.
Security was beefed-up for the hearing due to a death threat against Wakinekona, Fujino said.
Fujino scheduled an arraignment and plea for 11:30 a.m. Feb. 2 before 3rd Circuit Court Chief Judge Ronald Ibarra in Kealakekua. Wakinekona could get his trial date at that hearing.
Fujino also increased bail for Wakinekona to $500,000. It had been originally set at $60,000.
Makanani and her two sisters, Journey, 6, and Taimana, 2, had been living with Wakinekona and his wife, Kahealani Wakinekona, after the girls’ mother, Tasha Nihau-Lindsey, on Nov. 10 “dropped them off and never came back,” Kahealani Wakinekona testified Thursday. Kahealani Wakinekona said she is related to Nihau-Lindsey, and Ezekiel Wakinekona is Nihau-Lindsey’s hanai brother.
Makanani was found unconscious with labored breathing Friday night at her Waimea-area home, which police said belonged to Wakinekona.
According to Kahealani Wakinekona, a nursing supervisor at North Hawaii Community Hospital who was home at the time of the incident, Ezekiel was giving Makanani a bath and had left the bathroom for an undetermined amount of time before returning to find Makanani “partially submerged” in the water and making a “gurgling” sound. Kahealani Wakinekona said Ezekiel then ran out, asking for her help.
After seeing the child’s condition, Kahealani Wakinekona said she knew it would take too long for emergency personnel to get to the home and take Makanani to the hospital, so the couple started driving to North Hawaii Community Hospital. They instead stopped at the Waimea Fire Station when Makanani stopped breathing. An ambulance took the child to the hospital from there.
Emergency Room physician Dr. Gary Goldberg testified Thursday that upon arrival at the hospital, Makanani was wet, “cold to the touch,” with a body temperature of 86 degrees, and “physically bruised.” He said she had bruises all over her body, from the head down, a burn with blisters on her sternum, a laceration to her left groin area and abrasions and scabs on her lower legs.
Despite her condition, Goldberg said she was stabilized enough to be transported to Oahu where she was pronounced dead on Sunday.
According to court records, Wakinekona has 10 prior convictions, none for felonies, dating back to 1993. He was convicted in 1993 of misdemeanor assault and sentenced in Hilo District Court to six months probation and 50 hours community service.
Email Chelsea Jensen at cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com.
