12-10-15 Man arrested for hotel burglary

Hawaiʻi Police Department
Criminal Investigations Section, Area II
Lieutenant Gerald Wike
Phone: 326-4646, Ext. 266
Report No. C15035738

 

Media Release

A Hōnaunau man has been charged with five offenses after police responded to a report of burglary at a Kona hotel.

Shortly after 5:30 a.m. Tuesday (December 8), Kona Patrol officers responded to the 75-5700 block of Aliʻi Drive, where hotel employees were holding a suspect.

Witnesses reported they had seen a man jumping from balcony to balcony. He reportedly entered an occupied room through the balcony’s screen door, removed three bags and then returned to the lanai. One of the room’s occupants, a 20-year-old woman from Switzerland, struggled with the intruder on the lanai and regained control of the bags. No one was injured during the struggle.

Hotel employees watched as the man jumped to another balcony and entered an unoccupied room using the same technique. He exited the hotel room through the front door and fled to the parking lot, where employees detained him until police arrived. Both lanai screens were damaged when the intruder gained entry into the rooms.

Police determined that the suspect, 29-year-old Elijah Prevetz-Lafayette, was wanted on a $10,000 bench warrant. They arrested and charged him with contempt of court and took him to the Kona police cellblock while detectives from the Criminal Investigations Section continued the investigation into the hotel incident.

At 4 p.m. Wednesday (December 9), detectives charged Prevetz-Lafayette with burglary, theft, criminal property damage and criminal trespass. His bail on those charges was set at $37,000. He remained at the cellblock until his initial court appearance on Thursday (December 10).

 

 

 


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