HONOLULU POLICE DEPARTMENT
Thomas K. Arakaki
Select an option below to continue reading this premium story.
Already a Honolulu Star-Advertiser subscriber? Log in now to continue reading.
Prosecutors have charged a 31-year-old man with murder in the death of his uncle in Pearl City.
Thomas K. Arakaki was charged with second-degree murder Thursday in the death of Stanley Yamada. His bail has been set at $200,000.
Police found Yamada unresponsive in his home at approximately 10:30 p.m. Tuesday after they responded to a welfare check. Emergency Medical Services personnel also responded and pronounced him dead.
The Honolulu Medical
Examiner’s Office determined Yamada died of blunt force injuries to his head and torso. The manner of death was classified as a homicide.
Police located Arakaki in the Pearl City home on the same night they found Yamada. Neighbors said Yamada lived at the residence with his mother and that Arakaki visited periodically.
Yamada was a ramp chief agent at Hawaiian Airlines. A video posted on social media showed many of his co-workers draping lei on his cart at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in the wake of his death.
Court records show
Yamada had filed a petition for a temporary restraining order against Arakaki in February 2015. He described Arakaki as his nephew.
Yamada had written in the document that his nephew was yelling and screaming in the middle of the street at
3 a.m. one morning in January 2015.
In a separate incident
that occurred a day before Yamada filed the petition, he wrote how Arakaki was yelling, screaming and punching himself in the face. Police
and Emergency Medical Services responded, and Arakaki was taken to a hospital for observation.
Nearly two weeks after the petition was filed, a six-month temporary restraining order against Arakaki was dissolved after the court dismissed the petition without prejudice due to “lack of prosecution.”
Court records indicated Arakaki had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.