Police Arrest and Charge Second Hale Nani Escapee

Hawai‘i Island police have arrested and charged 41-year-old Kawai James Pomroy, one of the three men who escaped from the Hale Nani Correctional Facility on Friday, December 13, 2024.

On Tuesday, January 14, 2025, at approximately 2:45 p.m., Pomroy was apprehended by Park Rangers within Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, where he was arrested without incident.

Upon conferral with the Hawai‘i County Prosecutors Office, Pomroy was charged with the following offenses, stemming from the escape:

• Second-degree escape
• First-degree theft (motor vehicle)
• First-degree unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle

Bail for those charges was set at $9,000.

In addition to the above charges, Pomroy was also arrested and charged on the strength of a Warden’s warrant of arrest for a furlough violation (no bail), and was returned to the custody of the Hawai‘i Community Correctional Center.

One of the other escapees, 36-year-old Joseph Canito Fernandez, was arrested on December 18, 2024. The third escapee, 31-year-old Clyde Takeshi Talosaga Loa Jr., remains at large, and should be considered armed and dangerous.

The Hale Nani employee’s vehicle that the escapees stole, was recovered on Wednesday, December 18, 2024, at a property located on Tiki Lane in Hawaiian Ocean View Estates.

On Friday evening, December 13, 2024, Hale Nani Correctional Facility personnel reported that Fernandez, Loa, and Pomroy, had left the facility without permission, and were observed on surveillance operating the vehicle that belonged to an employee. The men did not have permission to operate the vehicle.       

Police ask anyone who may have information on Loa’s whereabouts to contact the police department’s non-emergency line at (808) 935-3311, or Detective David Po‘ohina of the Area I Criminal Investigation Section at (808) 961-2385, or email at David.Poohina@hawaiicounty.gov.