BY CHELSEA JENSEN WEST HAWAII TODAY ADVERTISING cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com Waimea 3-year-old Marley Makanani died from brain damage, a Hawaii Police Department officer testified Thursday during a preliminary hearing for the 37-year-old relative charged in connection with her death. “Marley Makanani had
BY CHELSEA JENSEN
WEST HAWAII TODAY
cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com
Waimea 3-year-old Marley Makanani died from brain damage, a Hawaii Police Department officer testified Thursday during a preliminary hearing for the 37-year-old relative charged in connection with her death.
“Marley Makanani had anoxic brain damage due to a near drowning and a traumatic head injury due to child abuse,” said Officer Scott Kurashige, referencing a conversation he had Wednesday with Honolulu Medical Examiner Kanthi De Alwis, who was unable to attend the hearing. “The contributing causes were blunt force trauma to the liver and intestines.”
The preliminary hearing for Ezekiel Ramsayer Hao Wakinekona, who is facing manslaughter and two misdemeanor abuse of a family or household member charges stemming from the Sunday death of Makanani, came to an end Thursday with 3rd Circuit District Court Judge Melvin H. Fujino ruling prosecutors had presented enough evidence to transfer the charges to 3rd Circuit Court. The hearing featured enhanced security since someone had made a death threat against Wakinekona, Fujino said.
Wakinekona is scheduled to enter a plea to the charges and receive his trial date during an 11:30 a.m. Feb. 2 hearing before 3rd Circuit Court Chief Judge Ronald Ibarra in Kealakekua.
Fujino, who presides over South Kohala District Court, also increased bail for Wakinekona to $500,000 — well above the $10,000 prosecutors requested and the $100 Wakinekona’s defense attorney, Richard Sing, requested.
Makanani, along with her two sisters, Journey, 6, and Taimana, 2, had been living with Wakinekona and his wife, Kahealani Wakinekona, after the girls’ mother, Tasha Nihau-Lindsey, on Nov. 10 “dropped them off and never came back,” Kahealani Wakinekona testified Thursday. Kahealani Wakinekona said she is related to Lindsey, and Ezekiel Wakinekona is Nihau-Lindsey’s hanai brother.
Makanani was found unconscious with labored breathing Friday night at her Waimea-area home, which police said belonged to Wakinekona.
According to Kahealani Wakinekona, a nursing supervisor at North Hawaii Community Hospital who was home at the time of the incident, Ezekiel was giving Makanani a bath and had left the bathroom for an undetermined amount of time before returning to find Makanani “partially submerged” in the water and making a “gurgling” sound. Kahealani Wakinekona said Ezekiel then ran out, asking for her help.
After seeing the child’s condition, Kahealani Wakinekona said she knew it would take too long for emergency personnel to get to the home and take Makanani to the hospital, so the couple got in a vehicle and attempted to reach North Hawaii Community Hospital, but stopped at the Waimea Fire Station when Makanani ceased breathing. Medics transported the child to the hospital from there.
Director of Emergency Services Jerry Goldberg testified Thursday that upon arrival at the hospital, Makanani was wet, “cold to the touch,” with a body temperature of 86 degrees, and “physically bruised.” He said she had bruises all over her body, from the head down, a burn with blisters on her sternum, a laceration to her left groin area and abrasions and scabs on her lower legs.
Despite her condition, Goldberg said she was stabilized enough to be transported to Oahu where she was pronounced dead on Sunday.
Police subsequently arrested Wakinekona on suspicion of manslaughter and abuse and had Makanani’s two sisters who were living in his home taken into protective custody. The abuse charges stem from injuries the sisters suffered.
Wakinekona, just three hours after Makanani’s 5:14 p.m. Sunday death, was charged with manslaughter and two counts abuse of a family or household member, according to police.
According to the Department of the Attorney General’s criminal records, Wakinekona has 10 prior convictions, none for felonies, dating back to 1993. He was convicted in 1993 of misdemeanor assault, and sentenced in Hilo District Court to six months probation and 50 hours community service.
