A 29-year-old Puna man accused of two armed carjackings and an attempted armed carjacking while hitchhiking last month is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 2 p.m. Monday in Hilo District Court.
A 29-year-old Puna man accused of two armed carjackings and an attempted armed carjacking while hitchhiking last month is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 2 p.m. Monday in Hilo District Court.
Mason David Beck is charged with two counts each of first-degree robbery and unauthorized control of a stolen vehicle plus single counts of attempted first-degree robbery, kidnapping and contempt of court.
Beck made his initial appearance Thursday on the carjacking-related charges. After Judge Michael Udovic granted the Tribune-Herald permission to photograph the proceedings, Beck turned to the camera and gestured with his middle finger, as he did while leaving the courtroom Wednesday after appearing for the unrelated contempt charge.
Deputy Public Defender Isaac Ickes asked the judge to grant his client supervised release or to reduce Beck’s $220,000 bail on the felony charges. He said a check of Beck’s criminal record turned up no “prior felony convictions in this state.”
“We believe setting bail in the amount of $50,000 on each (robbery and kidnapping) count is rather high,” he said. “… In three of the matters charged, we believe $10,000 for each count would be in line with standard bail.”
Deputy Prosecutor Jared Auna requested that Beck’s bail be maintained, noting “three separate incidences of robbery in which the sequence of events are similar.” Auna told the judge Beck poses “a danger to the community.”
Udovic scheduled the preliminary hearing and said, “I think it’s necessary to maintain the bail at $220,000 for the safety of the community.”
As he was ushered out of the courtroom by a sheriff’s deputy, Beck turned to the Tribune-Herald and said, in a calm but chilling tone, “Take some more pictures.”
On March 15, a 37-year-old visitor from Germany identified in court documents as Stefan Sturber told police he was driving a friend’s Honda Element and picked up a hitchhiker on Pahoa-Kalapana Road (Highway 130) near Pahoa. The hitchhiker allegedly threatened Sturber with a carpenter’s nail gun and told him to keep driving. About five or six miles past Pahoa village, the man reportedly told Sturber to pull the car over and get out, then drove off toward Kalapana.
Then on March 24, a 66-year-old local resident identified in court documents as Jeffrey Greene told police a hitchhiker he picked up in Hawaiian Paradise Park pulled a knife on him in Keaau and ordered him to drive to Stainback Highway. At the old quarry, the hitchhiker allegedly told Greene to stop, took some of Greene’s personal belongings, then ordered Greene out of his Ford F-150 pickup truck and drove off toward Highway 11.
In the most recent case, on Saturday, a 25-year-old California man told police a hitchhiker he picked up on Pahoa-Kalapana Road near Pahoa brandished a knife and told him to drive toward the Kalapana lava viewing area. According to police the victim, identified in court documents as Krishna Teja Velagapudi, said when he reached a populated area, he stopped the car and honked the horn, causing the would-be carjacker to get out of the car and flee.
The robbery, attempted robbery and kidnapping charges are all Class A felonies punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment, while the unauthorized control charges are a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison upon conviction.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.