Ex-fugitive found guilty in sex assault case

A state jury has returned guilty verdicts against a man who was brought back to Honolulu from Puerto Rico after skipping out on his trial on charges of sexually assaulting a girl under 14 years old.

The jury found Israel Vega Malave guilty Wednesday of two counts of first-degree sexual assault.

According to the indictment against Malave, he committed the crimes between September 2011 and September 2013.

Malave, 35, faces a madatory 20-year prison term at sentencing in January.

He was initially arrested in 2013 then released on $50,000 bail. Malave forfeited the bail and had an arrest warrant issued against him when he failed to show up for trial on June 26 of this year.

Honolulu police and U.S. marshals opened a joint investigation and discovered that Malave was hiding with relatives in Puerto Rico. They tracked him to a family residence in Guayama and took him into custody July 10.