A 22-year-old registered sex offender who allegedly pointed a ghost gun at a woman and her three children following a road rage incident near Ko Olina entered a plea of not guilty Tuesday in federal court.
Seth Zachary Owens was indicted May 25 for being a felon in possession of ammunition in connection with the April 9 incident and will remain at the Federal Detention Center, Honolulu, before trial. U.S. Magistrate Judge Rom A. Trader scheduled Owens’ trial to start at 9 a.m. July 24 before U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi.
The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking criminal forfeiture of a “black and green colored privately-
manufactured firearm, commonly referred to as a ‘ghost gun,’” and 14 rounds of 9 mm caliber ammunition, according to the indictment.
Owens’ attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Maximilian J. Mizono, did not immediately reply to
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
requests for comment.
Assistant U.S. Attorney
Michael F. Albanese, who
is prosecuting the case for the government, declined comment.
At about 5:05 p.m. April 9, the woman, referred to in federal court documents as “Witness 1,” accompanied by her children, ages 13, 7 and 4, saw a blue vehicle cut her off under the overpass near Ko Olina, according to an affidavit from a Homeland Security Investigations special agent.
After the first encounter, the woman and the car that cut her off met up again. The woman pulled in front of the blue car because her son, “Witness 2,” saw the driver point a gun toward them.
Owens and the woman allegedly met up again on Pohakunui Street where the woman said Owens, who was wearing a red shirt, was allegedly holding a black-and-silver handgun.
The woman told HSI agents that she saw Owens “point a gun towards her and laugh.” She called 911, and the blue car continued to follow her until Honolulu police responded and pulled over the blue car.
At about 5:10 p.m. an
HPD sergeant was driving
on Farrington Highway near Princess Kahanu Avenue
and followed the blue car
before pulling it over at Kaukama Road and Farrington Highway.
The HPD sergeant saw four people in the car and
allegedly witnessed the driver switch seats with the person in the front passenger seat.
When the sergeant pulled Owens and the others out of the car, he saw a single round of 9 mm ammunition on the driver’s seat of the car.
At 5:28 p.m. a field show-up was conducted with Owens and the other three passengers in the car pulled over by police.
The woman and her son were allegedly able to identify Owens as the man with the gun who was driving the blue car and pointed the weapon at them. The blue car was towed to HPD’s Alapai Street headquarters where detectives executed a search warrant and recovered a black-and-green,
privately manufactured “ghost gun” from the front passenger floorboard.
The ghost gun held one black magazine loaded with 13 rounds of 9 mm ammunition. HPD investigators
also recovered the round of 9 mm ammunition from the driver’s seat.
On Oct. 28, 2021, Owens was convicted in state court on three counts of third-
degree sexual assault and two counts of second-degree sexual assault.
Owens was sentenced to 18 months in prison and five years’ probation for assaulting a girl younger than 14 in 2019. Police said the victim told a family member June 16, 2019, that Owens, an acquaintance of her older brother, had sexually assaulted her.
