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Hawaii island police charged a 31-year-old former Oahu man Friday in connection with the theft of the top portion of a 6-foot spear stolen from the King Kamehameha statue at Wailoa State Park in Hilo on Tuesday.
William Roy Carroll III, who has no permanent address, was charged Friday with second-degree theft, third-degree theft for taking items from a nearby business, and second-degree criminal property damage. His bail was set at $11,000.
He remains in the Hilo police cellblock pending a court appearance Monday.
Police said video surveillance caught Carroll allegedly taking a pipe and chain from a nearby used-car lot and placing items near the statue.
Police had searched a channel behind the statue using a watercraft, and checked in the bushes on the banks of the channel. That’s where the spear tip was found. To recover evidence, police also used a fire ladder truck to reach the part of the statue from which the top section of the spear was forcibly removed.
After learning of the missing top half of the spear, a 72-year-old Hilo man stood guard Sunday at the statue, wearing a traditional red malo (red to signify Hawaii island, Kamehameha’s color) and holding his own spear.
James Kealii Pihana, who said he is a descendant of Kamehameha I, called the severing of the spear a desecration to his culture and to his high chief.
“You’re calling me out to war,” Pihana, a member of the Royal Order of Kamehameha I, said Sunday.
Pihana was further angered when he found a red ti leaf stalk left in the hole where the top segment of the spear had been cut off.
According to the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center, Carroll was found guilty Nov. 19, 2009, in Honolulu District Court for driving while under the influence of an intoxicant, a petty misdemeanor. He was given a suspended sentence.
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