Mountain View man facing charges after found with meth in a stolen vehicle

A Mountain View man found in a stolen vehicle with methamphetamine was arrested after evading authorities and driving recklessly through Hilo town earlier this week.

Hawai‘i Island police first encountered 43-year-old Paul Pittman on Monday at around 9:06 a.m. while a Hilo patrol officer was conducting beat checks in the Wainaku area. He first saw the suspect in the driver seat of a white Honda Civic four-door sedan parked off of Pu‘ueo Street where a female was seen in the front passenger seat.

The officer looked up the vehicle on his laptop and found it was reported stolen on Oct. 7, from a Kailua-Kona residence in Palisades off Kaiminani Drive. At that point, police say the officer then turned around and approached the stolen vehicle with his blue lights and siren activated.

The driver of the stolen vehicle then started up and drove away from the officer at a high rate of speed and was last seen overtaking another motorist.

“Due to public safety risks, the officer did not further attempt to stop the stolen vehicle,” according to a police press release Thursday.

About 43 minutes later, Hilo patrol officers began responding to numerous reports of a white four-door sedan driving recklessly on Kino‘ole Street in Hilo that was last seen near a restaurant in the 1900 block of Kino‘ole Street.

Recognizing the vehicle description as the stolen vehicle the officer had tried to stop earlier in the morning, officers responding to the scene located the car, which was parked in the restaurant parking lot, unoccupied.

Officers conducted a search of the immediate area and located a man matching the description of the driver who fled from officers earlier in the morning at a convenience store in the 2000 block of Kīlauea Avenue.

Upon being positively identified by the officer who attempted to stop the vehicle earlier on Pu‘ueo Street, Pittman was arrested for unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle and resisting an order to stop.

The stolen vehicle was recovered and towed to the South Hilo police station where detectives executed a search warrant on Tuesday, recovering .2 grams of methamphetamine, a methamphetamine-smoking pipe, and a Washington State identification card of Paul Pittman.

Pittman was charged with the following offenses and his bail was set at $46,000:

Unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle
First-degree (vehicle) theft
Resist order to stop
Third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug

Pittman remains in police custody and is scheduled to appear in Hilo District Court for a preliminary hearing on Friday.

Police ask anyone who may have information regarding this incident to contact Detective Christopher Jelsma of the Area I Criminal Investigation Section at 808-961-2386, or via email at christopher.jelsma@hawaiicounty.gov, or the department’s non-emergency line at 808-935-3311.