Trial set in Hilo machete attack

A 21-year-old Pahoa man pleaded not guilty Monday to two counts of attempted murder for a machete attack last month in a housing complex just mauka of the University of Hawaii at Hilo.

Hilo Circuit Judge ordered Atkinson Nakashima to stand trial at 8 a.m. June 1. Nakashima, who is free on $100,000 bail, was accompanied at his arraignment by court-appointed defense attorney Christopher Bridges and Chuukese language interpreter Lesther Muritok.

Deputy Prosecutor Jack Matsukawa estimated the trial would take six to eight weeks. Nakashima waived his right to be tried within 180 days.

Nakashima is accused of slashing a 21-year-old Hilo man, Tanielu Daniel Aiava, in the neck with a machete during an early morning confrontation Oct. 18 in the basketball court area of Hale Kawili Apartments, also known as ASH Housing. Aiava was hospitalized after reportedly suffering a laceration about 10-inches long and an inch deep. He’s since been released.

According to a court document filed by police, an emergency room physician at Hilo Medical Center said Aiava sustained “serious bodily injury to include permanent disfigurement.”

An additional charge of attempted murder was added against Nakashima when he was indicted by a grand jury Nov. 5. The second charge is for allegedly taking a swing with the machete at another man, Talifa Talifa III, and missing.

The police document states Nakashima was drunk when he was arrested at 2:25 a.m. the day of the incident.

In addition, a 16-year-old boy was arrested and charged with terroristic threatening for his alleged role in the same fracas.

Nakashima, who had several family members present in the courtroom gallery, was ordered by the judge not to possess firearms or ammunition, not to enter the premises of ASH Housing or the campuses of UH-Hilo or Hawaii Community College, and to stay away from the victims and several witnesses in the case.

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.