Rising waters caught group by surprise
Companions of a Hawaii island man swept away in a flash flood say they were unprepared for stream waters to rise so quickly after a brief but hard downpour.
Ernesto Combes has been missing since the Sunday night flash flood.
Hawaii County fire officials said divers recovered a body Wednesday in Kawainui Stream after the current subsided.
Combes’ girlfriend and her sons told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald in Wednesday’s editions that they were fishing for prawns when they were caught in the flood. Cathy Balicoco says she managed to hold on to a large rock until she was rescued.
Inmate charged in sexual assaults
An 18-year-old man appeared in Honolulu District Court on Wednesday to answer charges of sexually assaulting three teenage girls when he was a juvenile.
Jovon Rodrigues-Johnson was charged Tuesday with nine counts of first-degree sexual assault after Family Court waived jurisdiction. Rodrigues-Johnson, who was staying at the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility, was arrested at the Kapolei Judiciary Complex and is being held on $115,000 bail.
Police said Rodrigues-Johnson sexually assaulted the juvenile girls between 2008 and 2010.
According to sources familiar with the case, Rodrigues-Johnson was an acquaintance of the girls, whom he assaulted in three separate incidents. In two of the attacks he allegedly pulled the girls into a vehicle and assaulted them. Seven of the nine counts involved one girl.
Blaze strikes Mililani townhouse
Fire damaged a townhouse in Mililani on Wednesday morning, displacing three people.
Firefighters responded to the blaze on Kuahelani Avenue, between Meheula Parkway and Holaniku Street, about 11:05 a.m., reporting it under control about seven minutes later, Honolulu fire Capt. Terry Seelig said.
The fire was confined primarily to a living room or den and caused about $50,000 damage to the structure and its contents. But it displaced a young mother, an infant and an older woman, Seelig said. The American Red Cross Hawaii chapter was called to assist the family.
The cause is still being investigated, although indications are it was electrical in nature, Seelig said.
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Star-Advertiser staff and Associated Press
