A 71-year-old Hilo man who pleaded guilty to a felony negligent homicide charge for a collision that killed a 79-year-old aikido instructor who was riding a recumbent tricycle has been released from custody pending sentencing.
Hilo Circuit Judge Peter Kubota on Oct. 2 freed Carlton Inada on supervised release — a form of cashless bail.
That date marks the passage of a year since Inada struck and killed Barbara Klein with his 2016 Toyota pickup truck on Oct. 3, 2023. The collision took place on Akolea Road in Hilo.
Inada’s release also comes with conditions, including a mental health assessment and electronic monitoring — basically house arrest. He had been in custody since the fatal crash in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Inada pleaded guilty on Aug. 19 to second-degree negligent homicide, a Class C felony that carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped a charge of leaving the scene of a fatal accident, a Class B felony carrying a potential 10-year prison term.
Inada’s sentencing is set for 8:30 a.m. Nov. 21. Terms of the plea agreement call for four years of probation plus the year of jail that Inada already has served.
Deputy Public Defender Kenji Akamu told Kubota during a hearing Oct. 2 that Inada’s truck remains in the custody of the Hawaii Police Department, with Deputy Prosecutor Herbert Mukai confirming that statement.
In a motion that was rendered moot by Inada’s plea and wasn’t heard by the court, Akamu said that Inada suffers from an unspecified progressive neurological disease.
Akamu has filed a motion to defer Inada’s guilty plea which, if granted by Kubota, would expunge Inada’s conviction from the record if he serves his probationary sentence without any further trouble with the law.
Inada has no prior criminal record.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com