LIHUE — A Kalaheo man was arrested Thursday morning on charges involving a hit-and-run accident that killed a 24-year-old Eleele man on Sunday.
David Curry, 44, was arrested and charged with suspicion of being involved in an accident involving serious bodily injury or death, and has since been release pending further investigation, according to the Kauai Police Department.
The victim was identified as Florentino Maipa.
On Tuesday, Curry turned himself in at the Lihue police station and said he could have been the driver involved in the accident.
About 11:10 p.m. Sunday, a police officer was driving home when he discovered a man’s body on Halewili Road. According to a preliminary investigation, Maipa was walking in the eastbound lane when he was struck by an eastbound vehicle.
The involved vehicle was not at the scene of the accident when police arrived to investigate.
Police initiated a search for the driver of the vehicle and, on Monday, asked the public for help. Based on the debris from the crash site, police narrowed the description of the alleged vehicle as a silver Nissan Frontier truck, with four-wheel drive, made between the years of 1998 and 2004.
After Curry turned himself in, police recovered his vehicle, a 2004 silver Nissan Frontier with four-wheel drive, from his residence, and arrested him Thursday.
An autopsy is pending and an investigation continues.
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Bethany Freudenthal, crime, courts and county reporter, can be reached at 652-7891 or bfreudenthal@thegardenisland.com.
Might have been involved?
If you hit something with your vehicle and u sober u know.
Might have?
let me make a wild guess…he waited until later to turn himself in so it wouldn’t be a drunk driving murder.
Watch this one carefully.
What kind of bull caca is this? First two previous stories in the TGI was printed, “man in his twenties was walking eastbound in the eastbound lane on Halewili Road, the vehicle that hit him was travelling westbound on Halewili Road and hit the man.”
Today TGI print out is ” both (man and vehicle) was heading eastbound!” Which is it, ” eastbound man hit by westbound vehicle “or, someone is covering up for someone? Because according to the report is that evidence was based only on debris found near the man who got hit.
Is this the D.P.C., Brewmaster-owner of Kauai Island Brewing Co., which does $3.6 million a year in business at Port Allen?
Incredible. Why isn’t he charged with manslaughter, failure to render aid, leaving the accident? Why was he released? Who else thinks it’s evil to have left a man to die?
If he stopped to help and call 911, maybe the kid would still be alive. Regardless of possible other vehicle involvement, he was first, and the poor victim would probably been on the way to the hospital and not lying left for dead in the road. This guy should be held accountable.