A Hilo grand jury returned an indictment this week against a 29-year-old man in connection with the 2019 death of his 24-year-old girlfriend in Panaewa.
Ekolu Keolanui made his initial appearance Friday in Hilo Circuit Court via videoconference from the Hawaii Community Correctional Center after he was charged Wednesday with second- degree murder in the death of Sable Keffer-Young.
He remains in custody at the correctional facility in lieu of $1 million bail.
Prosecutors alleged Keolanui strangled Keffer- Young at Malama Park on July 19, 2019.
“Obtaining this indictment is the first step to seeking justice for Sable Keffer-Young and her ohana,” Hawaii County Prosecutor Kelden Waltjen said in a statement.
Keolanui has a history of violence against the victim, according to court records. In 2017 he was charged with four counts of misdemeanor abuse of a family or household member, one count each of kidnapping and felony abuse of a family or household member, and two counts of first-degree sexual assault against Keffer-Young.
Court documents show the two were arguing when Keolanui choked her with a belt and sexually assaulted her on May 28, 2017.
Under a plea agreement, some of the charges were dropped or reduced, and Keolanui pleaded no contest to two counts each of misdemeanor abuse and second-degree sexual assault, and single counts of felony abuse and kidnapping.
Court records show Circuit Judge Henry Nakamoto sentenced him to 18 months in prison and five years of probation. Keolanui also was ordered to register as sex offender, enter a domestic violence intervention program and not use drugs or alcohol.
The state Department of Public Safety said he was released on probation in November 2018.
A year later the state filed a motion to revoke Keolanui’s probation for violations that included testing positive for alcohol, methamphetamine and THC on June 29, 2019, according to court records. Keolanui tested positive again for THC on July 25, 2019 — just days after Keffer-Young’s death — and methamphetamine and THC on Aug. 2, 2019.
In August 2020, Nakamoto resentenced Keolanui to concurrent sentences of a year in prison for the misdemeanor abuse convictions, five years in prison for felony abuse and 10 years for kidnapping and second- degree sexual assault.
Keolanui has remained incarcerated since his resentencing.
