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2 men indicted in Mililani robbery, arrested in Makaha case

Rosemarie Bernardo

Police this week arrested two men on suspicion of robbing a Makaha convenience store at gunpoint.

Kekoa K. Kaluhiokalani, 20, and Bennett Villanueva Jr., 22, were recently indicted with two other men in a separate armed robbery that occurred June 1 at a Mililani Mauka gas station.

Police arrested the two Wednesday in the Makaha robbery case, the same day an Oahu grand jury indicted Kaluhiokalani, Villanueva, Ioane Kaluhiokalani and Tyson Rohr in the Mililani Mauka robbery at the Hele gas station at 95-1141 Ukuwai St.

Police said the four entered the establishment in masks and that Villanueva pointed a rifle at a store clerk at the register and said, “This is a robbery. Give me all the money, including the hundred-dollar bills under the drawer,” according to a court document.

Kekoa Kaluhiokalani and Ioane Kaluhiokalani allegedly grabbed the money from the register drawer while Rohr allegedly stood next to them.

They allegedly fled with an undisclosed amount of cash and Bic lighters. Police arrested them shortly after in the Mililani Mauka area.

The armed robbery in Makaha occurred three days earlier, on May 29, at a convenience store on the 8500 block of Farrington Highway. Police said two men entered the store and demanded money from the cash register while one of them brandished a handgun. Store employees gave the robbers an undisclosed amount of cash before they fled.

Kekoa Kaluhiokalani was released from custody Monday after he posted $20,000 bail in the Mililani Mauka robbery case.

He was at Honolulu District Court on Wednesday morning when police arrested him on suspicion of robbery in the Makaha case, according to police and a court document.

A $20,000 bench warrant was issued for Kaluhiokalani sometime that day after a grand jury indicted him and the three other men in the Mililani Mauka robbery.

Police also arrested Villanueva on Wednesday on suspicion of robbery in the Makaha case. He was at Oahu Community Correctional Center at the time, after being charged Monday in the Mililani Mauka robbery, and was being held in lieu of $75,000.

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