27.08.24 Police arrest and charge Puna man with property, drug and traffic offenses

Hawaii Police Department
Area I Criminal Investigations
Lieutenant Zachary Fernando
Phone: (808) 961-2252
Report No.: 24-068602

Media release

Hawaii Island Police have arrested Gilbert K. Mata III, 33, of Hilo, and charged him with various property, drug and traffic offenses. The incident occurred Saturday afternoon, August 24, 2024, after a concerned citizen reported a burglary at a residence in Puna.

On Sunday afternoon, August 25, 2024, detectives from the Area I Criminal Investigation Division, after consultation with the Hawaii County District Attorney's Office, charged Mata with the following offenses:

• Unauthorized control of a powered vehicle
• Resisting an order to stop a motor vehicle
• criminal damage to property in the first degree
• habitual property crime
• First degree theft
• Third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug (four counts)

Mata's total bail was set at $240,000.

Mata was unable to make bail and made his first appearance in South Hilo District Court on Monday afternoon, August 26, 2024.

Responding to a report of an active burglary at a residence in the 15-1500 block of 21^st Avenue in the Hawaiian Paradise Park Subdivision, officers noticed a heavily silver tinted Toyota Tacoma pickup truck with no license plate on the front parked near a warehouse in the back of the property.

As an officer exited a police-subsidized vehicle on the passenger side, the driver of the truck revved the engine and accelerated at a high rate of speed toward the officer and the police vehicle. Fearing for his safety, the officer jumped back into the police vehicle before the truck veered to the right, struck a fence, and ran over it. The truck then aggressively approached the police vehicle and struck the driver's side door, causing damage.

The truck's front driver's tire was observed to have lost air after driving over the fence. As the vehicle exited the property, officers attempted to stop the truck with lights and sirens. The truck refused to stop and police embarked on a low-speed chase out of the Hawaiian Paradise Park Subdivision onto Highway 130, then into the Ainaloa Estates Subdivision, and then into the Hawaiian Acres Subdivision.

The truck eventually came to a stop on Route 6 between E and F streets. Following verbal commands, a man carrying a black backpack exited through the driver's door and a woman carrying a gray backpack exited through the passenger door. Both then fled on foot and ran into the nearby bushes, dropping their backpacks just before getting in. They were both arrested by police about three meters into the bushes.

The male participant was identified as Mata and the female as Carolyn Samson. Both were arrested and transported to the East Hawai'i Detention Facility where they were booked, processed and further investigated by detectives. The truck and backpacks were seized as evidence and held pending the execution of search warrants.

Officers then used the vehicle identification number to verify the pickup truck's registered owner and determined that the truck had been stolen sometime during the late evening of July 27, 2024, and the early morning of July 28, 2024, from a residence in the 20 block of Ka'apuni Street in Hilo.

On Sunday morning, August 25, 2024, search warrants were executed on the truck and backpacks, seizing small amounts of methamphetamine, a methamphetamine pipe, and a round blue pill labeled “M30” that tested for the presence of fentanyl.

Samson was released pending the completion of the investigation.

The officers in the vehicle hit by Mata were not injured.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Detective Jeremy Kubojiri of the Area I Criminal Investigation Division at (808) 961-2378 or via email at [email protected].