Ex-state worker charged in food stamp case
A former state welfare worker has been charged with tampering with government records by falsely approving people for food stamps, according to the state attorney general’s office.
Erlinda Delacruzham, 59, was charged Oct. 23 with four counts of tampering with a government record and four counts of misapplication of entrusted property.
The attorney general’s office said Monday that the suspect on four occasions knowingly created false approval notifications to food stamp recipients.
Soldier leaves hospital, held in wife’s death
A Camp Smith soldier charged with killing his wife was released from a hospital Tuesday morning and arrested by police.
Bail for Leonardo Chavez, 40, from the Dominican Republic, is $1 million. Chavez had been in the hospital recovering from a gunshot wound to his right cheek that occurred in an apparent suicide attempt, police said.
On Nov. 19 an Oahu grand jury indicted Chavez on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Tara Isnin, and using a firearm to do it.
Isnin, 33, from Singapore, died from brain injuries caused by multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Honolulu medical examiner.
Chavez, an 18-year Army veteran, was stationed at Camp Smith and assigned to the Pacific Command’s Special Operations Command.
Brush fires interrupt travel on Big Isle road
Brush fires on Hawaii island are continuing to periodically close a 20-mile stretch of Mamalahoa Highway, which links Kona and Waikoloa.
The fires prompted the initial closing of Highway 190 on Monday afternoon. After two fires — a half-acre blaze at mile marker 23 and a 500-acre fire at mile marker 14 — were contained, the highway was reopened at noon Tuesday. At 4 p.m., as a new brush fire began at mile marker 16, the highway was closed again, county Fire Battalion Chief Gerald Kosaki said.
The latest fire, which has burned about 40 acres, is moving slowly and not threatening houses at this time, he said.
"Luckily, the wind died down," Kosaki said.
Workers from the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife helped county firefighters.
