Robbery case proceeds against son; no probable cause found for father

Only one of the father-son duo who allegedly robbed a hitchhiker last week remains charged, following the conclusion of preliminary hearing on Wednesday.

Sloan Deleon, 22, Kailua-Kona, allegedly threatened the man when he got into the Nissan Pathfinder near the Kona Tiki on the evening of Oct. 28. He is charged with robbery 1 and his arraignment is 11:30 a.m. Nov. 30.

“He was going to stab me with a knife if I didn’t empty out my pockets,” the victim testified in court about the encounter.

When the victim got in the vehicle, he was first asked if he had any “stuff,” he said.

Confused, he asked what the questioner meant, he said, and then there was a pause in the conversation.

Then Sloan Deleon threatened him, he said.

“I was gonna be stabbed with a knife or an edged weapon,” he said.

The victim also testified he never saw a knife, but Sloan Deleon said he had one.

The victim wasn’t able to reliably identify any of the other people in the car. He was unsure if there were three or four people, he said. Since Sloan Deleon was sitting in the middle seat, he assumed four.

Testimony by another witness showed there were four people in the vehicle.

“You are saying you recognized his voice. How did you recognize his voice?” said James Biven, Sloan Deleon’s defense attorney.

The victim said they had attended school together and both used the same beaches.

Biven pressed him on how much they interacted. The victim said they weren’t friends, but they did speak on occasion.

Robert Deleon was identified as the driver by Leilani Parent, the front seat passenger at the time. She is in custody on separate charges.

Although the victim asked to be let out immediately, he said it was several minutes before the SUV pulled over across from Banyan Mart.

One point of contention was the victim’s identification of Sloan Deleon despite the poor lighting. When he first reported the incident to police he said he was unable to identify the robber. He also allegedly said he couldn’t tell if anyone in the vehicle had tattoos. Both men have several large tattoos, including a Polynesian-style band on Sloan Deleon’s right neck.

By the next day he was able to pick Sloan Deleon out of a photo lineup as the man behind the voice.

“When something like that happens to you, it keeps you up all night,” he said.

He was already leaning toward Sloan Deleon after all the hours of thought, he said, and the photo confirmed it.

Deputy prosecutor Kauanoe Jackson argued that, since Robert Sloan did not stop the vehicle earlier, despite knowing the threats occurred, that he was an accomplice to the crime.

His defense attorney, Jason Kwiat, argued that the victim’s inability to identify Robert Deleon made it impossible that a reasonable person would say he was the suspect.

Judge Margaret Masunaga ruled there was no probable cause for Robert Deleon’s case, but that probable cause existed for Sloan Deleon’s.

Robert Deleon remains in jail on separate charges.

Police said they found drugs and paraphernalia in the van. Charges have not been filed in that case.