Hilo man gets 25 years for child porn
U.S. District Judge David Ezra sentenced a 67-year-old Hilo bookkeeper Monday to 25 years in federal prison for receiving and possessing what the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has called "the largest personal collection of child pornography that it had ever received," the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Federal law enforcement agents recovered from Ronald Felts’ Hilo home two computers and eight external hard drives containing about 1.7 million pornographic images and about 31,000 pornographic videos of children. Agents turned over the material to the national center.
Felts bought access to various websites offering child pornography and saved those images to the computers and hard drives, U.S. Attorney Florence Nakakuni said.
Felts admitted to downloading images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Most of the videos showed children, some under the age of 12, in such acts, the U.S. attorney said.
Felts was ordered to register as a sex offender and to undergo sex offender treatment.
Felts was also sentenced to a five-year term of supervised release.
Flags will lower to honor Army copter pilot
U.S. and Hawaii flags at state offices and agencies and the Hawaii National Guard are to be flown at half-staff Thursday in memory of Chief Warrant Officer 2 Don C. Viray, an Army helicopter pilot killed April 19 in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.
Viray, 25, was a native of Waipahu and a graduate of Roosevelt High School.
A memorial service will be held Thursday at Borthwick Mortuary. Visitation is at 9 a.m. and a service at 10 a.m. Viray will buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.
"We honor Chief Warrant Officer 2 Viray and all of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice as a result of their duty to the nation and fellow soldiers," Gov. Neil Abercrombie said Monday.
Also killed in the helicopter crash were three other soldiers of A Company, 2nd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment out of Wheeler Army Airfield.
Names of 2 men who died in sea are made public
Two men who died in the waters off Hawaii island during the weekend were identified Monday:
» Henry Kaawakoa, 44, of Pahoa apparently drowned off Kalapana on Sunday morning while diving from a boat.
He was pronounced dead at Hilo Medical Center at 1:30 p.m. Police said foul play is not suspected.
» Paul Kaaukai, 43, of Papaikou died Saturday at Onomea Bay, north of Hilo, while picking opihi alone.
Police responded at 1:52 p.m. to a report of a body floating in the bay.
They found Fire Department personnel already on shore with Kaaukai’s lifeless body. He was taken to Hilo Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 4:30 p.m.
An autopsy is scheduled for today.
Pahoa man is identified as crash fatality
A man who died last week from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash was identified Monday as Rikko J. Von Gato, 51, of Pahoa.
Von Gato was driving a 2007 Harley-Davidson motorcycle west on Leilani Avenue at 9:54 a.m. Wednesday when he failed to stop at a stop sign at the intersection with Route 130. He drove onto a private driveway and hit a gate, police said.
Von Gato was taken to Hilo Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 1:12 p.m.
