HONOLULU — Honolulu’s prosecuting attorney’s office won’t file criminal charges in a fatal road rage case.
“After carefully reviewing all of the evidence in this case, including witness statements, we determined that Gerald Waialae, the deceased, was the initial and unprovoked aggressor in the road rage incident,” Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm said. “We further determined that we did not have enough evidence to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt that the suspect acted in self-defense.”
Waialae and another man got into an early morning altercation while driving on a freeway in March. The incident escalated into a physical fight, leaving Waialae with fatal stab wounds.
Witnesses said Waialae appeared to be heavily intoxicated and intentionally rammed the other man’s car, Matthew Dvonch, special counsel to the prosecuting attorney, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
“This man was instigating my husband and my husband was upset because he kept cutting them off on the road and he was upsetting my husband and that’s the reason why he got out of the car. My children were in the car,” Waialae’s wife, Marilyn, told Hawaii News Now. “He was waiting for my husband with that weapon in his hand.”
She said if the man acted in self-defense he wouldn’t have left the state.