Man was high when fatally punched in face

Pil Sung Kim had a measurable amount of illegal drugs in his system when he was punched outside a Waikiki bar and hit his head on the sidewalk, Deputy Prosecutor Chastity Imamura told a state judge Wednesday.

Kim, 29, was attacked Feb. 20. He died on March 1 at The Queen’s Medical Center. The Honolulu Medical Examiner says Kim died from head and brain injuries due to blunt force trauma.

Imamura did not say what kind of drugs were in Kim’s system and the Medical Examiner says the autopsy report is not ready for release.

An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday charging the man accused of delivering the fatal blow, Cesarin Perez, with reckless manslaughter. Perez, 34, is in custody at Oahu Community Correctional Center. Circuit judge Colette Garibaldi confirmed his bail Wednesday at $500,000.

Imamura told Garibaldi that surveillance video from Irish Rose Saloon shows Kim standing and talking with a group of people outside the bar. It then shows Perez approaching and talking to the group, leaving to go into the bar, returning and punching Kim in the face during a verbal confrontation. Someone other than the people involved in the confrontation, who left, went to Kim’s aid.

The video shows Perez later returning and talking to the first police officer to arrive on the scene, Imamura said.

At the time of the attack, Kim was wanted on a $75,000 bench warrant for violating the terms of his pretrial release on three separate drug promotion cases, one of them also accusing him of assault, and was awaiting trial for violating his probation for his 2010 conviction for kidnapping, burglary, terroristic threatening, assault, drug promotion and possession of drug paraphernalia.

According to state court records Kim had undergone evaluation on his fitness to stand trial following brain surgery and dual mental illness diagnoses.

Perez has 2017 convictions for misdemeanor assault and petty misde­- meanor harassment. Imamura says he also has a record on the mainland.