U.S. marshals and state sheriffs working with a confidential informant tracked down a 20-year-old man implicated in a case of child abuse that nearly killed a 10-year-old girl.
Hans Poouahi Jr. was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service’s Adam Walsh Fugitive Task Force for failing to comply with the terms and conditions of his probation. He was arrested at about 4 p.m. Thursday at a Hanalei Street home in Waianae.
Poouahi was 13 when he was accused of abusing the girl, who lived with his family on Hawaii island. The girl was found in February 2005 on a couch on the lanai of Poouahi’s Ainaloa home with a decomposing cut on her head that contained maggots. The girl was missing part of her lip and had decomposing injuries on other parts of her body. She also suffered from broken bones, dehydration and malnutrition. She was in a coma for six weeks.
Poouahi was convicted as a juvenile and sent to the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility until he turned 19 in March 2010, the Marshals Service said.
Before he was released, he was arrested for escaping from the facility.
In the escape case, Poouahi was given one day of leave in February 2010 but did not return to the youth facility at the arranged time, said U.S. Marshals Service spokeswoman Donna Diaz. He was arrested after he turned himself in a few days later, she said.
Last October, Poouahi was convicted of the escape charge and sentenced to 164 days in prison and five years’ probation, according to state records. He was released from the Oahu Community Correctional Center on Aug. 26.
Eleven days later Judge Steven Alm issued a $20,000 warrant for Poouahi for failing to comply with the terms of his probation (for the escape) in the HOPE Probation program for high-risk offenders.
Marshals began tracking Poouahi after receiving the case last week, Diaz said.
"He was very mobile for the past couple days," Diaz said. "It was just a matter of hitting town and asking people."
Task Force agents combed Waikiki on Tuesday but did not find him after a confidential informant told them Poouahi was there. On Thursday the informant told them Poouahi was at the home of someone he knew in Waianae.
Federal and state agents knocked on the door and spotted Poouahi. He was arrested without incident for his third probation revocation this year, the Marshals Service said.
Poouahi is being held at the Oahu Community Correctional Center in lieu of $20,000 bail and is scheduled for a court hearing on Nov. 30.
Poouahi’s mother, Hyacinth, is serving a 20-year sentence, also at OCCC, after admitting to failing to stop others from hurting the girl. She was convicted in 2008 of assault, unlawful imprisonment, terroristic threatening and endangering the welfare of a minor.
Hyacinth Poouahi reportedly has mental issues that make her borderline mentally handicapped, said her lawyer at the time of her trial.
The girl, who is not related to Poouahi, had been staying with the family for about three months because her mother would leave her with family or acquaintances for weeks or months at a time.
In 2005 Hyacinth Poouahi eventually called paramedics, who found the girl with multiple injuries. A doctor who treated the girl told police that marks on her body suggested she had been bound and that she had several areas of dead tissue from pressure ulcering and burns apparently from a cigarette and cigarette lighter, a court affidavit said. Court records showed one of Poouahi’s daughters said Hans Poouahi had been hurting the girl and stabbed her in the ankle with a steak knife.
The girl was sent to California for burn treatment and later returned to Hawaii.
Now 16, she is doing well and living with family on Hawaii island but has some permanent disability from the abuse, said Hawaii County Deputy Prosecutor Rick Damerville.
He saw her on her birthday last year and hopes to see her again for her birthday this year.
"She was much improved then," he said. "She’s a remarkably resilient person."
