A 31-year-old Kona man who survived multiple gunshot wounds in an apparent early morning ambush on Hilo’s northern outskirts identified a recently paroled murderer as one of three men who shot him.
A 31-year-old Kona man who survived multiple gunshot wounds in an apparent early morning ambush on Hilo’s northern outskirts identified a recently paroled murderer as one of three men who shot him.
During a preliminary hearing Thursday in Hilo District Court, William “Willie Boy” Holbron-Kealoha pointed out 43-year-old John Perez III of Hilo as one of three triggermen in the 4:30 a.m. shooting Jan. 31 on Kahoa Street near Honolii Lookout.
Holbron-Kealoha confronted Perez, a reputed gang leader, saying, “You remember me, eh?”
That prompted Deputy Prosecutor Tharrington Trusdell to caution Holbron-Kealoha to just answer questions.
Perez, who was paroled in December for a 1991 murder, is charged with attempted second-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a separate felony, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and carrying a firearm on a public roadway.
Holbron-Kealoha said he was driven to Honolii by a friend, 29-year-old Matthew Chavaries Jr. of Hilo, after receiving text messages from a woman named Ashley Grammer.
“She said her boyfriend, ‘Chapo,’ was beating her up and stuff,” Holbron-Kealoha testified. He said he didn’t find Grammer, but saw a man he recognized as Scottie Yanagawa, plus Perez, whom he didn’t know, another man wearing a hoodie and “a short Japanese girl.” He said he didn’t know the name of the man in the hoodie, but said the man’s nickname is “30-30.”
“I told them what was going on, and (Perez) said, ‘I just came out (of prison). I did 20-something years,’” Holbron-Kealoha said. “I explained to them who was texting me, and I jumped out of the car and let them know what was going on. … I shake all their hands. And one of the guys, the hoodie one, was carrying one long rifle.”
Holbron-Kealoha said he was in the passenger seat rolling a joint after Chavaries parked the car and got out. He said Yanagawa then told him, “‘I don’t like the way you approached me in front of my boys.’ I said, ‘Hey, Scottie, don’t you remember me?’ Cause I never know he was ‘Chapo’ at first. … Right after that, he shot me two times.”
Holbron-Kealoha said he could smell gunpowder as he moved from the passenger seat to the driver’s seat in an attempt to get out of the car.
“As I opened the door … John shot at me a couple of times, and he catch me right here. I could feel ’em, ” he said, pointing to his right side. “… When I went grab the car and stand up again, the guy with the hoodie, he went fire. And that’s when my arm came off and … I crawl back in the car again, and I heard a couple of shots in the back in the driver door.”
Holbron-Kealoha said Chavaries came running to the car and drove him to Hilo Medical Center. Once they arrived, Holbron-Kealoha said, “I went jump out of the car. I put myself on the gurney, too. I’m fading out. I ask the doctors if I’m going to live. The next thing I know, I was waking up at (The) Queen’s Medical Center (in Honolulu).”
Robert Curtis, Perez’s court-appointed attorney, asked Holbron-Kealoha if Ashley Grammer “would be Ashley K. Grammer or Ashley E. Grammer?”
“Just Ashley Grammer,” he replied.
Both Ashley Grammers are incarcerated at Hawaii Community Correctional Center, but Ashley K. Grammer was free when the shooting took place and Ashley E. Grammer was not, according to court records.
Holbron-Kealoha testified he knew Grammer’s sister but not her, and didn’t know how she got his number or why she would text him.
He also said he knew Yanagawa because they’d done time together at HCCC, but didn’t know he was “Chapo.”
Curtis asked if Holbron-Kealoha talked with Perez about “La Familia” — an apparent reference to a gang — and Holbron-Kealoha replied, “Yeah.”
“How did that go?”
“OK,” Holbron-Kealoha replied. He said he knew from HCCC that Yanagawa was a La Familia member.
“And were you also a member of La Familia?” Curtis inquired.
“No.”
Curtis later asked Chavaries if he’d heard Holbron-Kealoha tell one of the alleged shooters, “I got you into La Familia.”
“Yeah, I heard it,” Chavaries replied, and added he didn’t know whom Holbron-Kealoha was addressing.
Chavaries said he was “far, far away” from the gunfire and couldn’t identify the shooters, nor did he identify Perez in court.
He said when he got into his car to drive Holbron-Kealoha to the hospital, he noticed the driver’s seat was wet from blood.
“It was like I was swimming,” he said.
Asked what happened when he delivered Holbron-Kealoha to the hospital, Chavaries replied, “He got out. He’s a strong guy. Pulled himself onto the gurney.”
“What did you do then?” Trusdell asked.
“I drove away,” he replied.
Police later found the bullet-riddled, blood-spattered 1992 Nissan sedan abandoned, its engine still running, above the hospital at the corner of Waianuenue Avenue and Piikea Street, according to two police detectives, Sandor Finkey and Todd Pataray.
Pataray testified officers found 11 bullet casings on Kohoa Street, two of them from Federal .45-caliber rounds plus nine 7.62-by-39 casings.
“The 7.62 is commonly used in a rifle-type firearm,” Pataray said. “I’ve known it to be used in AK-47s and SKSs.”
Curtis asked Finkey if either Yanagawa or Ronald Barawis Jr. was charged with crimes connected with the Honolii shooting.
“Both of those gentlemen are deceased,” Finkey replied.
Barawis, a paroled ex-con wanted by police, was shot dead by officers Feb. 5 after he allegedly drove toward them at the Puainako Town Center McDonald’s restaurant.
Yanagawa, wanted for failure to return from a prison work furlough, was killed in a shootout with police four days later in the Hilo Wal-Mart parking lot.
Judge Harry Freitas ruled there is probable cause to try Perez, who’s in custody in lieu of $350,000 bail, and ordered Perez to appear before Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura for arraignment and plea at 8 a.m. March 30.
Email John Burnett at jburnett @hawaiitribune-herald.com.