WAILUKU >> A man is facing a manslaughter charge after he allegedly delivered a fatal punch to a man outside of a grocery store in Paia.
The Maui News reported Tuesday that David Homalon Jr. appeared in Wailuku District Court on Monday.
Police responded to Mana Foods on Thursday and found 45-year-old Fabian Martinez lying unconscious between two parked vehicles. Witnesses reported that Homalon had gotten into an argument with Martinez and that he punched Martinez once in the face.
Martinez fell and hit his head on the asphalt roadway. He was taken to a hospital, where he was found to have no brain activity.
Homalon had initially been charged with first-degree assault, but he was charged with manslaughter after Martinez’s death.
Fire at abandoned home investigated
Fire investigators are trying to determine how a fire started in a Kahala home that neighbors said has been abandoned for 30 years.
The fire at 1135 Hunakai St. was reported at 11:16 a.m. Monday and extinguished nearly 30 minutes later.
No damage estimate was available because the house was badly in need of repair with foliage growing within a room, fire officials said.
The fire was contained to a bedroom of the single-story home.
In Liliha fire investigators say smoking and medical equipment may have caused a $140,000 fire Sunday that destroyed a ground-floor two-bedroom apartment on Vineyard Boulevard.
Thirty-two firefighters responded to the fire, which was reported at 1:56 p.m. at 404 N. Vineyard Blvd.
It was extinguished 19 minutes later.
Three people were home at the time. A 54-year-old man was treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation.
Driver arrested in excavator theft
A traffic stop on the H-1 freeway early Monday morning got a 34-year-old Manoa man thrown in jail after the arresting officer discovered the mini-excavator he was towing had been stolen.
The officer stopped the truck towing an unlicensed trailer at about 1 a.m. Monday on the H-1 freeway near the Vineyard Street offramp.
