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Honolulu police and paramedics say a man died on the H-1 Freeway Thursday night after a fall from a moving vehicle. (This Honolulu traffic camera image courtesy Hawaii News Now)
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The Medical Examiner’s Office has identified the 33-year-old Ewa Beach man who died after jumping from a moving car Jan. 31 on the H-1 freeway.
Keala Leong was run over and killed by a passing car near the Waipahu offramp.
In June 1998, Leong was with a group of men who tried to break into a cabin at the Waianae Army Recreation Center. During the attempted theft, Army helicopter pilot John Latchum Jr. was shot in the heart with a .22-caliber rifle. Latchum was on vacation with his wife and their two children.
Leong pleaded guilty to attempted burglary in exchange for federal prosecutors dropping a murder charge. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Two other men were convicted of murder. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in July 2003 reversed the murder convictions on a 2-1 vote, saying U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor made
a mistake in not allowing the defense to introduce the possibility that someone else fired the shot that killed Latchum. Their sentences were later reduced to 25 years under a sentencing agreement rather than life without parole.
Police are looking for the driver of the car that hit Leong and did not stop after the 9:45 p.m. accident.
The incident occurred as the car, driven by a woman, was traveling west on the H-1 freeway. Leong died at the scene.
The medical examiner said Leong died of multiple instances of blunt force trauma.