Some Pearl City residents expressed relief Thursday after a man was charged in connection with a series of burglaries that kept the neighborhood on edge after culminating in a fire that killed an elderly woman.
"Last night was the quietest it’s been in a long time," said Raechele Long of Hoomalolo Street. "There was not one dog barking. I felt like I could sleep last night for the first time in a while."
Prosecutors charged Michael P. Dahilig, 35, of Ewa Beach with setting fire to a home at 1888 Hoomalolo St. on March 30 and causing the death of 97-year-old resident Betty Hagihara.
Dahilig was charged at 3:30 p.m. Thursday with first-degree arson, manslaughter, three counts of first-degree burglary, one count of attempted burglary, promoting a dangerous drug and drug paraphernalia. He remained in police custody Thursday night in lieu of $1 million bail.
Police said Dahilig was the man seen by a neighbor rummaging through the remains of the burned home the day after the fire, and also arrested and charged him in connection with the burglaries of another home on the street in September and March.
Police said Dahilig tried to flee Tuesday after officers tracked him down to a home in Ewa Beach and tried to dispose of drugs and drug paraphernalia. Police said that after detectives interviewed Dahilig, he was arrested for the arson and manslaughter.
Dahilig has eight convictions in Hawaii, including three for burglary, one for robbery and two for drug offenses, according to the state Criminal Justice Data Center. He was sentenced in 2003 to two concurrent 10-year prison terms for two burglary counts.
Ron Kawakami, whose mother died in the fire, suspected Dahilig has mental problems because he returned to the scene so soon.
"I couldn’t imagine how dumb he was to come back again," said Kawakami, 77. "Who else would set a fire and the very next day come back to pick up that other stuff?"
He wasn’t sure whether he felt upset, because the man might be mentally unstable.
"I got to give him some leeway, but I hope they put him away because he might hurt somebody else," he said.
Kawakami, an only child, said his mother raised him as a single parent until he was about 10 years old.
"She was a very good person," he said. She worked at a restaurant on Bethel Street and later in a cafeteria for the state, and stayed active after retiring, bowling until about two years ago when her health began failing. "She had a nice, good life. She was very happy with her grandchildren and everything else."
He said the burglar in the Friday case went after Kawakami’s gardening tools and radio-controlled model airplanes, which were worth $1,000 each. He said the burglar recently took two tillers worth about $350 each, and the week before the fire, someone burglarized his house two times, taking one of the tillers. Five days before the fire, Kawakami placed three locks on the shed after someone tried to burn through a lock.
He said the home that burned down was owned by his girlfriend and had been burglarized seven times, but he heard the culprit might have actually burglarized it more than that.
"We noticed some small things missing, but I never really reported it," Kawakami said. "That’s the trouble. I think I took the guy too lightly."
He suspects the same person committed the burglaries because the person kept going after the same type of items when there were other things that could have been taken.
"Only because of the model airplanes, my mom died and my girlfriend’s house burnt down," he said. "That’s the only part that’s really disappointing because he didn’t have to do that."
He said friends have been trying to comfort him after his mother’s death, but "you can’t bring her back."
