Authorities took a little more than a year to indict the parents and grandmother of a 9-year-old Hilo girl who allegedly died of starvation on June 28, 2016.
The deprivation allegedly began on or about Oct. 23, 2015, ending in the child’s death eight months later.
It took a year to bring a murder indictment because police reports included more than 6,000 pages of documents, comparable to the Peter “Peter Boy” Kema case, said Rick Damerville, the deputy prosecutor who handled the grand jury proceedings in both cases.
Detectives executed bench warrants and on
Friday arrested the girl’s 49-year-old father, Kevin
Lehano, her 33-year-old mother, Tiffany K. Stone, and maternal grandmother, Henrietta H. Stone, 59. They were indicted Wednesday on second-degree murder charges. They are being held at the Hilo police cellblock in lieu of $100,000 bail each.
The child was living with her maternal grandmother at a Kinoole Street home when police and fire personnel were called to the home, Damerville said. She was found unconscious on the floor and severely malnourished, police said.
The girl, who has not been named by authorities, was taken to Hilo Medical Center, where she died a few hours later, police said.
Although Henrietta Stone had physical custody and had temporary guardianship pursuant to a power of attorney, the parents still had
legal duties to care for her, Damerville said. “If you know a child is being deprived of food and water
or of getting medical attention, you can be charged with a crime.”
He added, “You’re not relieved of that responsibility as long as you know what’s going on. You’re not relieved of your responsibilities simply by giving power of attorney to someone else.”
Damerville said he could not say at this time whether Child Welfare Services had been involved in the case.
In the Kema case, CWS had voluminous records totaling more than 6,000 pages of documents showing the severe abuse from infancy by Peter Kema Sr., and that both parents denied him proper medical attention. The boy died in 1997 at age 6, according to his father’s confession.
In the 9-year-old girl’s case, “something was happening over a period of time,” Damerville said.
“It is my opinion that
the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney will be consulting with other law enforcement authorities in the state of Hawaii,” including the attorney general and the governor’s offices, and “will be recommending significant changes in governmental procedures regardless of the outcome of this case,” he said.
Online court documents show a criminal complaint was filed March 31, 2006, against Lehano for abuse of a family or household member, which was amended to third-degree assault. He pleaded no contest to the assault. The conviction was deferred for a year if he completed an anger management program.
Lehano completed the program, and the case was dismissed on Sept. 19, 2007.
The Hawaii Tribune-Herald said Lehano was a radio announcer for KWXX-FM and went by the name Kevin Lee.
Tiffany Stone was convicted Jan. 6, 2005, of second-degree terroristic threatening involving a knife. She was sentenced to 30 days in jail and a year probation. She was required to obtain drug and alcohol treatment, domestic violence intervention and mental health treatment.
