A Hawaiian Acres man testified Thursday he was “blindsided” when he came home after a long absence for medical reasons and found his pickup truck gone and his home ransacked and burglarized. ADVERTISING A Hawaiian Acres man testified Thursday he
A Hawaiian Acres man testified Thursday he was “blindsided” when he came home after a long absence for medical reasons and found his pickup truck gone and his home ransacked and burglarized.
James Cassidy took the witness stand in the preliminary hearing for 33-year-old Ronald Joseph Kong, who’s facing an explosives charge, numerous firearms and drug offenses, and is accused of burglary, driving a stolen vehicle, domestic abuse, terroristic threatening, assault and unlawful imprisonment.
Kong also is suspected of threatening a Hilo Circuit Court judge, although he hasn’t been charged with that offense.
Cassidy, a neighbor of Kong’s on Road 2 in the upper Puna subdivision, said he had never met Kong before. He said when he returned home Jan. 11 after having been gone for several months, his missing silver 2014 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck was “the first thing I noticed.”
Also missing, he testified, was a moped, a blue backpack with a money belt containing $7,700 and numerous household items including a refrigerator.
“I didn’t know what happened,” Cassidy said. “I’m very upset. I’m still finding things that are missing.”
Police say Kong was driving the pickup truck toward Hilo when he was pulled over by police on Volcano Highway (Route 11) in Mountain View near Kukui Camp Road. Kong allegedly ran into some bushes and avoided capture until he was apprehended Sunday night at an Ainaloa subdivision home.
Kong’s 31-year-old girlfriend, Maryellan Higa, also was in the truck. She was arrested on suspicion of hindering prosecution, but was released from custody without being charged. According to court documents filed by police, she told officers Kong kicked her in the side, grabbed her hair and forced her into the truck on Jan. 4, then drove to Panaewa Park in Hilo. There, she said, he brandished a black .22-caliber pistol and told her if she left him, he would shoot her.
A doctor confirmed Higa suffered a broken rib, documents state.
Higa was in court Thursday for another matter, but was not called to testify at the hearing.
Honolulu Police Cpl. Robert Dalbec, a bomb squad technician, testified he was brought in to examine the pickup truck and a backpack. He said a black semi-automatic handgun was found in the backpack, as was a Hawaii state ID card belonging to Kong.
Dalbec also described what appeared to be an improvised explosive device found in a milk crate in the bed of the truck. He described it as a 13-inch-long conical object made of polyvinyl chloride with an orange cap, wires and a string.
“Everything attached the way it was, it was homemade,” Dalbec said, and added an X-ray of the device showed “indicators that it could have explosives in it.”
“We basically shot it with high-speed water to take it apart, bust it up,” he said.
Dalbec said a “burn test” was performed on remnants of the device.
“After about a second or two with a flame on it, it burned rapidly,” he said. “I would say violent.”
The hearing is scheduled to continue at 2 p.m. Feb. 9 in Hilo District Court.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
