Herbert "Maka" Kaio-Campbell hanged himself at his Waimanalo home two days before he faced the possibility of a 20-year prison sentence for killing a boy while allegedly racing through Waimanalo two years ago.

Kaio-Campbell was 21.

The family of 11-year-old Samuel Kassebeer was prepared to pack Circuit Court on Wednesday morning — and bring along Kassebeer’s ashes — to hear Kaio-Campbell’s punishment.

Instead, Kassebeer’s grandmother, Julie Kassebeer, struggled with a range of powerful emotions Wednesday.

"I’m happy that he (Kaio-Campbell) is gone. I’m happy," said Julie Kassebeer, who knows Kaio-Campbell’s family and lives half a mile away from them along Kalanianaole Highway. "I feel sorry for the family, but now they know how we feel. It’s not going to bring my grandson back."

The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office said Kaio-Campbell died at his Waimanalo home at 7:58 a.m. Monday and listed the cause of death as asphyxiation due to hanging.

Neighbors said they heard screams and sobs coming from the backyard Monday morning, where a 20-foot tangerine tree grows, followed later by a throng of officials who eventually brought a body bag out of the backyard.

"I heard a woman screaming, ‘He promised!’" said Kuulei Laughlin, who lives behind Kaio-Campbell’s house. "Then there was crying for 10, 15 minutes."

Several neighbors said a man named Herbert Campbell — who was a relative of Herbert Kaio-Campbell’s — hanged himself at the home several years ago.

A woman at Kaio-Campbell’s home Wednesday who identified herself as his auntie said the family had no comment on his death.

Kaio-Campbell’s suicide represented the latest tragic turn for the former Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard fuel employee who had been awarded the Honolulu Fire Department’s Civilian Medal of Valor just two months before the high-speed crash that killed Kassebeer.

Kaio-Campbell had been credited with saving a teenage girl who had been struggling in rough surf off Makapuu Beach in Waimanalo in 2009.

Then, on the night of July 25, 2010, Honolulu police said Kaio-Campbell and Travis Murray were racing and "leapfrogging" each other in no-passing zones along Kalanianaole Highway when Kaio-Campbell’s black Honda Accord slammed into a Hyundai Elantra making a left turn in front of him.

Kaio-Campbell’s Accord was speeding at 77 mph when it crashed into the Elantra and ejected Kassebeer out of the back seat and onto Kalanianaole Highway, where he died.

Honolulu prosecutors said Kaio-Campbell had a blood-alcohol content of 0.10 at the time of the crash.

It is unlawful for anyone 21 or older to operate a vehicle with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or higher. It’s also illegal for anyone under 21 — which Kaio-Campbell was at the time of the collision — to operate a vehicle with any amount of alcohol in their system.

An Oahu grand jury charged Kaio-Campbell and Murray in August with manslaughter and two counts of second-degree assault for injuries suffered by the other occupants of the Elantra.

Murray is scheduled to stand trial for manslaughter in May.

But Kaio-Campbell pleaded no contest to the manslaughter and assault charges on Jan. 17, his attorney Jeffrey Hawk said, because, "He felt responsible for the boy’s death."

Kaio-Campbell’s family never wanted to fight the charges, Hawk said.

"They didn’t want to upset the Kassebeers and drag it out," Hawk said.

Honolulu prosecutors Wednesday morning were prepared to ask Judge Colette Garibaldi to sentence Kaio-Campbell to an indeterminate, 20-year sentence, meaning there would be no minimum term, said Dave Koga, spokesman for the Prosecutor’s Office.

It would be up to the Hawaii Paroling Authority to later determine Kaio-Campbell’s minimum sentence before he would be eligible for parole.

Hawk said he was going to ask for probation — or for eight years for the manslaughter and four for the assaults under a provision that allows judges to impose lighter maximum sentences for defendants who were younger than 22 years old when they committed their crimes.

Hawk said he last spoke to Kaio-Campbell about two weeks ago, when Kaio-Campbell reported that he was doing fine and was looking forward to completing drug treatment, Hawk said.

Kaio-Campbell did not say anything about being depressed, Hawk said.

When word spread of Kaio-Campbell’s suicide Monday morning, Julie Kassebeer parked her car at Bobby’s Market across from Kaio-Campbell’s house and waited until officials brought out a body bag.

"When the Medical Examiner came, then we knew that he was gone," she said. "I knew Herbert’s mother and they wanted to come and apologize for what the son had done at the time. I didn’t want their apology."

Hawaiian Memorial Park Mortuary in Kaneohe has been contacted by Kaio-Campbell’s family but no services have been scheduled, the mortuary said.

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Star-Advertiser reporter Nelson Daranciang contributed to this report.