KAILUA-KONA — A 30-year-old Hilo man charged in connection with a Tuesday bank robbery in South Kona will make his initial appearance in court next week.
Hawaii Police Department detectives charged Russell Risshi Monlux at 12:45 p.m. Friday with first-degree robbery, second-degree theft and second-degree terroristic threatening stemming from the Tuesday incident at the American Savings Bank branch off Highway 11 in Kealakekua. He remains in police custody in lieu of $37,000 bail.
Monlux is slated to appear Monday in Kona District Court where he can either demand a preliminary hearing where the state must prove it has probable cause to support the charges, or waive that right, sending the case to Circuit Court for trial.
Police allege Monlux entered the bank around 3 p.m. Tuesday and passed a note to a teller demanding cash before fleeing on foot, heading toward North Kona. Criminal Investigations Section Lt. Gerald Wike on Friday declined to provide an amount taken during the hold-up. However, based upon the charge of second-degree theft, the amount taken would have exceeded $750. A first-degree theft charge is filed when the value exceeds $20,000.
Police said the note stated Monlux had a weapon, however, officers did not locate one at the scene or on Monlux’s person when he was arrested shortly before 5 p.m. Wednesday at Kona International Airport.
It was an anonymous tip from the public that led police to Monlux, said Wike. Within an hour of the robbery, police had posted two bank surveillance images of the suspect requesting the public’s help to find him.
“All of the leads came from the community, and we had a tip that he was at the airport,” said Capt. Chad Basque, who oversees the Criminal Investigations Section in West Hawaii. “Our detective went down to the airport and found him on the north end.”
Wike said Friday that the arrest occurred within the secure area of the airport, not just within the 3,450-acre property at Keahole Point. He declined to provide additional details, but did express thanks to the FBI’s West Hawaii Field Office for assistance. The FBI did not respond for comment as of press time on Friday.
First-degree robbery, a Class A felony, is punishable by up to $25,000 in fines and up to 20 years incarceration without the possibility of probation or a suspended sentence. Second-degree theft is a Class C felony that carries a maximum fine of $10,000 and up to five years in jail while second-degree terroristic threatening is a misdemeanor that could result in a max fine of $2,000 and up to one year in jail.
The alleged robbery Tuesday in Kealakekua wasn’t Monlux’s first brush with law enforcement.
According to police, he was arrested June 9 after he allegedly passed a handwritten bomb threat to a teller at the Bank of Hawaii branch inside the Hilo Safeway store on Makaala Street.
The store was evacuated and Monlux was charged with two counts of first-degree terroristic threatening, but the charges were later dropped with prejudice — meaning prosecutors cannot refile them — after Hilo District Court Judge Henry Nakamoto found Monlux unfit to proceed to Circuit Court based on a report by state Department of Health psychologist Dr. Frederic Manke. Monlux was ordered committed into DOH custody for a period not to exceed 120 days.
According to a check of criminal records maintained by the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center, which falls under the state Attorney General’s Office, Monlux has six convictions/acquittals on his record dating to 2007; all are misdemeanors.
In 2007, he pleaded no contest to two counts of violating a protective order, for which he was sentenced to two years probation and 30 days in jail. Also that year, he was acquitted of violating a protective order and criminal contempt of court because of “mental incapacity” and committed to the DOH.
Last May, he pleaded no contest to first-degree criminal trespass of a dwelling for which he was sentenced to one year probation and 60 days in jail. And in June, he pleaded no contest to the same charge in another case and was sentenced to 60 days in jail. Proof of compliance hearings in those cases are scheduled for February.
