The father of Peter “Peter Boy” Kema Jr. is scheduled to appear today in Hilo Circuit Court and is expected to accept a plea deal in the murder of his young son two decades ago.
Peter Kema Sr. was scheduled to face trial April 25 before Judge Greg Nakamura on one count of second-degree murder in the death of his then 6-year-old son, who disappeared in 1997.
After 20 years Peter Boy’s body has never been found. Police and prosecutors have offered Kema Sr. a plea deal contingent on his revealing the location of the body, sources said.
Hawaii County Deputy Prosecutor Rick Damerville, who is handling the case, would not confirm that such a deal has been made. He said a hearing is scheduled in the Kema case for
1 p.m. today before Nakamura.
Kema was indicted April 28 on the second-degree murder charge.
His trial had been set for Jan. 23, but his lawyer asked that it be moved to April.
His wife, Jaylin Kema, was also charged with second-degree murder in their son’s death, but pleaded guilty in December to manslaughter in exchange for testimony against her husband. She also pleaded guilty to second-degree theft in a welfare fraud case.
She had agreed that the boy had suffered severe abuse; that she failed to get him medical treatment, probably out of fear of her husband; and that the boy died of septic shock. Jaylin Kema was also severely abused by her husband, the prosecutor told the court.
Prosecutors say Jaylin Kema does not know where the body is.
She is scheduled to be sentenced May 30.
In 1997 Peter Kema told police that he brought his son to Oahu and gave him to an “Auntie Rose Makuakane” at Aala Park while looking for work.
But police could neither find such a woman nor any evidence they had flown to Oahu from Hawaii island.
The case was initially classified as a missing-person case, but was reclassified to murder in 2000. However, no one had been arrested until 2016.
The Kemas had three older children who survived the abuse.
All four children were “horribly physically abused” by their father, daughter Chauntelle Woods wrote in a court affidavit. “However, Peter Boy, the youngest, was abused the worst,” she said.
The judge ordered Kema Sr. not to have any contact with son Allan Acol or daughters Lina Acol and Chauntelle Woods.
Among the 2,000 pages of confidential documents released by the state Department of Human Services was the startling revelation that Peter Boy’s 5-year-old sister told a psychologist she saw her brother’s dead body twice.
The state intervened on Peter Boy and his siblings’ behalf shortly after his birth on May 1, 1991. He and his siblings were placed in foster care with their maternal grandparents. But in 1995 they were returned to their parents.
In 1997 Child Welfare Services began investigating after receiving a report that Peter Boy was being abused again.
In January a Family Court judge appointed a special master to determine whether there are grounds for a wrongful-death lawsuit for damages on behalf of Peter Boy.
Private investigator Steve Lane was appointed as master at the request of Woods, who filed the petition on behalf of herself and her siblings.
The judge asked the Department of Human Services and Child Welfare Services to turn over their documents related to the Kema children.
