A 33-year-old driver who crashed a vehicle near the Kipaa Gulch Bridge, killing his 15-year-old female passenger on April 12, pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of negligent homicide and driving without a license.
Natrin Auelua Naki, also known as Natrin Auelua- Naki, wearing an arm sling, appeared by videoteleconference from the Oahu Community Correctional Center before Oahu Circuit Judge Rowena Somerville, who confirmed his bail amount
at $75,000.
The judge set his trial date for June 23 before Judge Paul Wong.
He remains in custody at OCCC, where he was also being held on a probation
violation.
The judge also granted the deputy prosecutor’s oral motion for a no-contact order of a minor witness and four adult witnesses.
The family of the girl has identified her on a fundraising site as Treijah “Bun Bun” Rivera, and said she died in a car accident “caused by a drunk driver.”
She is described as a beautiful soul, “full of love, laughter, and dreams — especially her dream of becoming a veterinarian.”
The family is asking for donations to cover funeral expenses, and had raised more than $7,500 as of Monday.
Rivera is pictured posing with an unidentified infant. The page said she leaves behind her parents, siblings, cousins and a large extended family.
Auelua Naki is charged with second-degree negligent homicide, a Class C felony, for operating a vehicle that caused the death of the teen, and recklessly operating a vehicle without a driver’s license.
According to police, he was speeding and overtaking vehicles while heading southbound when he lost control, veered into the northbound lanes and hit a fence. The vehicle careened back across the highway and struck a guardrail, and the teen was thrown from the vehicle.
Police initially said speed and alcohol appeared to have contributed to the crash, but it was unknown whether drugs played a role.
The girl was taken in critical condition to a hospital and later died.
The 33-year-old, whose
relationship to the teen
was unclear, was arrested shortly after the 4:30 a.m. April 21 crash on Kamehameha Highway just before Lanikuhana Avenue. The family did not respond to a request for more information.
Auelua Naki was in court the day before the crash, April 11, for a second-degree criminal tampering case. A bench trial was postponed.
Auelua Naki has a history of drug and alcohol abuse, violent behavior, reckless driving and speeding, as
evidenced by his own mother’s petition for a protective order.
On Dec. 5, 2023, Auelua Naki’s mother, Chasidy Naki, petitioned the Family Court for a protective order, alleging he had abused her, his father and his brother multiple times from 2018 to the present.
“Unpredictable behavior due to drug use — very violent, physically, mentally and verbally. Very destructive at home and in the community, always under the influence of drugs and drive illegally around community, speeding, reckless, burning rubber, jumping on people’s car on Farrington Highway, stopping traffic, causing chaos at home and community.”
Naki said the abuse included grabbing, hitting, kicking, slapping, punching, pushing and shoving. She alleged he destroys property and appliances, slams the front and bedroom doors, punches holes in the wall, throws things around the house, smokes drugs in his room and damages living- room furniture.
She said he threatened physical harm, bodily injury or assault and engaged in extreme psychological abuse, malicious property damage and coercive
control.
Auelua Naki had been on probation at the time of the crash and had recently completed a one-year sentence. He had been resentenced March 8, 2024, for a 2018 felony assault conviction to one year of confinement and four years’ probation.
If found guilty of negligent homicide, he is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of imprisonment without the possibility of parole since he is considered a repeat offender due to his first-
degree criminal property damage conviction, a Class B felony, since it was committed within 10 years of that prior conviction.
His conviction record also includes felony and petty misdemeanor criminal property damage in 2023 and 2012, driving without a license in 2019, violation of protective order in 2017, drunken driving in 2015 and 2013, petty misdemeanor theft in 2012 and petty misdemeanor disobedience to police officers in 2013.
He has been charged with 10 traffic crimes.
Rivera’s GoFundMe page is at 808ne.ws/4lGh8Zz.
