The 24-year-old Hauula man accused of forcing a vehicle that was carrying three of his friends off the highway and into a rock wall Saturday chased them down after getting into an argument and fight with them at a convenience store, said Keith Seto, deputy city prosecutor.
An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment Thursday charging Justin N. Bush with the attempted murder of all three of his friends; threatening them; the assault and attempted assault of two of them; and damaging their pickup truck. He remains in custody unable to post $200,000 bail.
According to court documents, a witness told police an SUV and a Nissan Titan pickup sped past him in East Honolulu on Kalanianaole Highway headed toward town at about 10:15 p.m. Saturday.
The collision closed westbound lanes on the highway for nearly five hours.
Seto said after a nearby 7-Eleven employee broke up the fight between Bush and his friends, the friends took off in their pickup truck, and Bush went after them in his sport utility vehicle. He said Bush rammed the back of the truck twice and, when the truck driver veered to the right, forced the pickup off the road and into a rock wall near the Waa Street intersection.
The friend sitting in the back of the pickup truck was thrown on impact and sustained severe brain injuries, which put him into a coma, Seto said. The driver suffered a severe cut and slight fracture to her head. The front-seat passenger suffered a concussion and injury to his back.
Police said Bush failed a field sobriety test when they found him a few blocks away. They said his blood alcohol content was 0.128, well above the drunken-driving legal threshold of 0.08.
There is a pending DUI case against Bush from a March 22 arrest. The state Administrative Drivers License Revocation Office revoked Bush’s license for that arrest Monday, two days after he allegedly caused the crash involving his friends.
He is also on court supervision after having pleaded guilty in October 2010 to felony theft and misdemeanor assault. A state judge granted him a five-year deferral of his guilty pleas and the opportunity to avoid conviction in March 2011 even after Bush failed to show up in court several times for his change of plea and several more times for his sentencing.
