Pair Arrested in Kona Robbery

Two men have been arrested in connection to a robbery that took place in Kailua-Kona on Aug. 4.

The arrests followed an incident involving a stolen truck, according to the Hawai’i Police Department.

HPD says that on Aug. 4, a 32-year-old Kailua-Kona man was robbed in the parking lot of a shopping center near the intersection of Kuakini Highway and Palani Road. The robbers took his bag.

Nearly two months later, on Tuesday, Sept. 29, police officers observed a pickup truck in Kailua-Kona that had been reported stolen on Monday from a Papala Place home in Kailua-Kona.

Twenty-eight-year-old Alihilani Joshua Stringert and a 37-year-old woman, Lila Uyeshiro, were arrested on suspicion of unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle.

Stringert was also arrested on suspicion of the Aug. 4 robbery and other offenses.

Both Stringert and Uyeshiro were taken to the Kona police cellblock as detectives from the Area II Criminal Investigations Section continued to investigate.

On Tuesday, HPD arrested another individual, 25-year-old Christiansan Ikaika Kaawa, also on suspicion of the Aug. 4 robbery.

Kaawa was charged with an unrelated contempt of court offense with bail set at $600. He was taken to court Wednesday morning on the contempt charge and returned to the cellblock, where he was later charged with robbery. His bail on that offense was set at $25,000.

At 3 p.m. Wednesday, Uyeshiro was released without charges.

HPD charged Stringert with unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle, two counts of robbery, and one count of theft.

According to HPD, the second robbery charged to Stringert was for a Sept. 10 incident where a woman’s purse was taken as she was about to enter a Kaiwi Street business in Kailua-Kona.

The theft offense charged to Stringert was in relation to a Sept. 25 incident where clothing and a skateboard was removed from a store in Kainaliu.

Stingert’s bail was set at $61,000.

Both Kaawa and Stringert will appear in court on Thursday.