A Waikiki man pleaded not guilty Friday in federal court to new charges filed May 25 after police found an unregistered assault rifle in the trunk of his car following an August pursuit.
Christopher Chan, 31, entered his not guilty plea to one count each of possession of an unregistered firearm or ghost gun and possession of a machine gun before U.S. Magistrate Judge Wes Reber Porter. He was indicted in December on possession of the unregistered firearm, and the second superseding indictment secured May 25 added the machine gun charge.
If convicted, Chan faces up to 10 years in prison on each count.
His trial is scheduled for July 3 before U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson. Chan will remain at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu before trial.
“Mr. Chan took great pride in pleading 100% innocent,” his attorney, Walter J. Rodby, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara D. Ayabe, who is prosecuting the case for the government, did not immediately return a request for comment.
The newest charge is connected to a machine gun conversion device designed and intended for use in converting a weapon into a machine gun.
Chan allegedly used the device to modify a privately made AR-type rifle.
Once installed, the rifle was able to “shoot automatically more than one shot without manual reloading by a single function of the trigger, both of which the defendant knew to be a machine gun, or was aware of the essential characteristics of the firearm which made it a machine gun,” according to the superseding indictment.
In mid-August, the general manager of a Waikiki condominium told Honolulu police officers that Chan, a resident in the building, “had been the source of several complaints” from other residents about “unusual behavior.”
Residents said Chan made statements about “people tracking him” and that “neighbors were attacking him with radio frequency waves,” according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court.
Also, the manager told police there were reports of Chan trying to kick down neighbors’ doors, and that the neighbors had not filed police reports because they were afraid of him.
When the manager spoke with Chan in July, Chan said he was investigating a satanic cult being run inside the building, and that he was being targeted as a human sacrifice. Chan said he didn’t report the matter because he believed the Honolulu Police Department and the FBI were involved in the conspiracy.
On Aug. 12, a maintenance worker at the condo building reported that while servicing the air conditioner in Chan’s unit, he saw “assault style firearms within the unit,” according to federal court records.
In another exchange, Chan allegedly told the same worker to defend himself “by any means” during the “coming apocalypse.”
HPD officers conducting a welfare check of Chan on Aug. 16 saw him driving out of the building’s parking structure and ordered him to stop. Chan drove off, hitting an HPD vehicle and other cars before Crime Reduction Unit officers assigned to Waikiki tracked him down and arrested him at his mother’s house.
Chan was then transported to The Queen’s Medical Center for a mental health evaluation.
Officers found an AR-type rifle loaded with ammunition in the trunk of the 2012 Toyota Camry he was driving. Special agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found that the weapon did not have a serial number and was not registered.
