WAILUKU - A June 25 trial is set for a Kula man charged with assaulting, kidnapping and sexually assaulting his pregnant girlfriend while driving her from Haiku to Kula, Paia and Napili this month.
During his arraignment Tuesday in 2nd Circuit Court, Isaiah Shim, 28, pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree sexual assault, kidnapping, two counts of first-degree terroristic threatening, second-degree terroristic threatening, four counts of second-degree assault, three counts of felony abuse by strangulation, attempted first-degree assault, third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug and possessing drug paraphernalia.
Shim is being held in lieu of $567,000 bail at the Maui Community Correctional Center. A bail hearing for him is scheduled for Thursday.
During a preliminary hearing earlier this month, the victim detailed the ordeal that began at about lunchtime April 1 when she and Shim left his mother's house in Haiku. The 25-year-old Waihee woman, who is about five months pregnant, said she was put in a chokehold and had a rope wound around her neck.
She also described being repeatedly punched and hit with a beer bottle, metal pipe and PVC pipe as Shim accused her of cheating on him. She said Shim pulled the dull edge of a knife across her throat, said he would push her off a cliff and threatened to cut off her toes with pliers.
