A 26-year-old man who allegedly threatened another man with a firearm at a suspected Kalihi game room has been charged with terroristic threatening.
Kilani Derego was charged Tuesday night with first- degree terroristic threatening and firearm-related charges. His bail was set at $150,000.
Police said a male suspect, later identified as Derego, entered the game room at 1104 Palama St. shortly before 3:30 a.m. Monday. He brandished a gun at another man and demanded money, police said.
A scuffle ensued between the two men and the firearm discharged twice, police said.
Police said there were no gunshot injuries but a bouncer fought with Derego, who sustained multiple head and face injuries in the altercation. It is unclear whether the bouncer was the man Derego initially threatened.
Officers recovered the pistol at the scene and arrested Derego.
Emergency Medical Services treated and transported Derego to The Queen’s Medical Center in serious condition.
Police said Derego is still at the hospital and has been moved to a room from the intensive care unit.
Derego was free on a $150,000 bond pending a retrial for murder in the 2010 beating death of a taxicab driver in Waipahu.
Early on May 1, 2010, Derego, then 17, and Michael Robles, then 18, entered a cab driven by Charlys Ty Tang in Waikiki. They arrived at the Waipahu Times Super Market parking lot when an argument occurred between Derego and Tang.
Robles testified in his own trial that Derego initiated the beating and inflicted severe injuries. Tang was taken to Queen’s Medical Center where he died later that day. It was his 41st birthday.
In 2012, Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario sentenced Derego to life in prison with the possibility of parole for second-degree murder.
The Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals overturned the murder conviction in 2015, ruling that the judge should not have allowed the state to present Robles’ police statements as evidence.
Del Rosario allowed the prosecutor to present the police statements to jurors after Robles refused to answer questions at Derego’s trial. The appellate court said his refusal to answer questions denied Derego his right to cross-examine his accuser in the police statements.
The appeals court sent the case back to Circuit Court for retrial, which is tentatively set for January.
Despite repeated objections by the state, Derego was released from prison in July on a $150,000 bond by Aloha Bail Bonds pending the trial.
It was the second time he was released from prison within a year. Derego was previously released in September 2017 on a $150,000 bond by Da Kine Bail Bonds but returned to prison five months later after he flagged down a police officer in Waikiki and admitted he cut off the ankle monitor owned by a bail bondsman.
