A Puna man stopped for driving a suspicious vehicle has been charged with 11 offenses, including five felonies.
A Puna man stopped for driving a suspicious vehicle has been charged with 11 offenses, including five felonies.
At 12:45 p.m. Tuesday, Puna Patrol officers stopped 21-year-old Isaac Rosa of Mountain View, who was driving a pickup truck without a rear license plate on Ihope Road in Mountain View. Officers determined the truck also had no vehicle identification number. Rosa was arrested on suspicion of altering a motor vehicle serial number and taken to the Hilo police cellblock while officers from the Area I Criminal Investigations Section continued the investigation.
Investigation revealed the truck had been stolen in a warehouse burglary on Stainback Highway sometime between Feb. 5 and 6, according to police.
Police believe Rosa had been an accomplice in a burglary at another warehouse on Wiliama Street in Keaau on March 24. During that burglary, a sedan was stolen. Later that day, the stolen car was used in the theft of a pickup truck on Kukuau Street in Hilo.
Investigators say they determined that Rosa was responsible for an unrelated theft of a John Deere all-terrain vehicle on March 18 in Honomu.
Police recovered all three stolen vehicles and the ATV.
At 10:15 a.m. Thursday, Rosa was charged with three counts of unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle and one count each of second-degree burglary, accomplice to first-degree theft, second-degree criminal property damage, accomplice to fourth-degree criminal property damage, driving without a license, driving without insurance and altering a motor vehicle serial number. The accomplice to first-degree theft, a B felony, was enhanced from accomplice to second-degree theft because the theft occurred when Puna was under a disaster declaration.
Rosa remained in the cellblock in lieu of $16,775 bail until his initial court appearance on Friday.
Police ask anyone with information about the March 24 warehouse burglary on Wiliama Street in Keaau or the identity of the second suspect to call the Police Department’s nonemergency line at 935-3311.
Those who prefer to remain anonymous may call the islandwide Crime Stoppers number at 961-8300 and may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000. All Crime Stoppers information is kept confidential.