Man indicted in violent robbery

An Oahu grand jury has returned an indictment against a 25-year-old man after he allegedly robbed, punched and kicked a 78-year-old man in the face with steel-toed boots, breaking a bone in the victim’s face.

Alvin Ponce, who has no local address, was indicted Wednesday on a second-degree robbery charge. He remained at the Oahu Community Correctional Center in lieu of $50,000 bail.

The victim told police Ponce walked up to him in the Keeaumoku Street area at about 1 a.m. Saturday and asked if he were “Taliban,” to which the victim replied in the negative, a police affidavit filed in District Court says. Ponce then shoved the victim down and yelled, “Give me all your money.”

Ponce punched and kicked the victim in the face multiple times with steel-toed boots, the document says.

Police responded and arrested Ponce on Kapiolani Boulevard near Kona Iki Street. During his arrest, Ponce told officers that he “licked that … Taliban” and “he got what he deserved,” the document says.

Ponce also hurled homosexual slurs toward the man, the affidavit says.

Ponce allegedly told an officer that he would kill the victim next time.

“I popped him super hard with my right hand,” the document quotes Ponce as saying. “I punch hard. I knocked him out.”

The victim sustained numerous bruises to his face, a laceration near his eye and a broken bone near his eye and was treated by a doctor, according to the affidavit.