A 31-year-old homeless Hilo man has made a plea deal in his case stemming from a March 30 rampage in a stolen tractor-trailer truck.
Solomon Aloha Kepano pleaded no contest Monday to first-degree theft, second-degree criminal property damage and three counts of second-degree reckless endangering. Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura ordered Kepano to appear for sentencing at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 5.
In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped a fourth-degree theft charge and three counts of leaving the scene of an accident. Kepano, who has no prior felony record, faces a probation sentence with a possible 18-month jail sentence. He will be allowed release after serving six months, however, to undergo substance abuse treatment. He has been in jail since being arrested the night of the offenses.
Kepano faced a possible 10-year prison term for first-degree theft, a Class B felony. He didn’t speak during his hearing, except to answer the judge’s questions “yes” and “no.”
According to court documents, Kepano took the keys to the 18-wheeler and several trucks from a lock box at Hawaii Food Service Alliance on Makaala Street in Hilo, then swiped the truck, which was loaded with food, plowed through the warehouse’s closed gate and drove south, eventually making his way to Pilipaa Street in the Panaewa neighborhood.
Johnny Lum Ho, the revered kumu hula of Halau O Ka Ua Kani Lehua, told police he was driving south on Pilipaa at about 6:45 p.m. the day of the incident when the Freightliner tractor-trailer overtook him at a high rate of speed and hit the driver’s side of Lum Ho’s car, forcing him off the roadway and onto the lawn of a home at 54 Pilipaa St.
Another driver, Jose Morales, told officers he was northbound on Pilipaa and saw the tractor-trailer overtake Lum Ho’s car. Morales said the large truck almost collided head-on with his vehicle. According to documents, Morales swerved off the road in an attempt to avoid the collision and was struck on the rear of the driver’s side of his vehicle.
Neither driver was injured, police said.
Police said the stolen truck then clipped and severed a utility pole, ran off the road and crashed into the house at 54 Pilipaa.
None of the home’s three residents were injured, but two, Matangi Moala and Milton Ah Nee, told officers they saw Kepano try to reverse the truck off the property. When he was unsuccessful in doing so, he got out of the truck and started walking away.
Moala and Ah Nee then apprehended Kepano and detained him until officers arrived, according to documents.
The bizarre incident occurred during Merrie Monarch week the night before the festival’s hula competition began. Lum Ho’s women gave stellar performances the following three nights, winning the wahine hula kahiko (ancient hula), wahine hula ‘auana (modern hula) and wahine overall titles in hula’s most prestigious event.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
