WAILUKU - A Wailuku man and his live-in girlfriend were charged Thursday with second-degree murder for the death of his 4-year-old son, who was taken to the hospital emergency room Tuesday night, police said.
Bail was set at $500,000 each for Kyle McKeown, 32, and Grace Lee-Nakamoto, 27. They were being held Thursday at the Wailuku Police Station.
The boy, who was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center at 10:57 p.m. Tuesday, sustained severe blunt force trauma to his internal organs and died at 4:33 a.m. Wednesday, police said.
Article Photos
McKeown
Preliminary results of an autopsy done Thursday showed that the 41-pound child died of blunt force trauma, police said. McKeown is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 220 pounds, according to the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center.
Police would not release additional details about the child's injuries or how they were inflicted.
His father reported that the boy had been found unresponsive in the shower, according to police.
McKeown had custody of the child, whose mother lives in Honolulu, police said.
At the Hale Kono apartment complex on Vineyard Street where McKeown, his son and girlfriend lived, other residents said McKeown didn't appear to be working. Residents said McKeown had moved into the complex four or five months earlier with a different girlfriend.
According to court records, McKeown has prior convictions for abuse of a family or household member in 2001 and third-degree assault in 2000 on Oahu, as well as two contempt-of-court convictions in 2008.
About six months after moving to Maui, he was arrested in October 2009 in a Lahaina bar after he refused to leave and had to be taken to the ground when he aggressively stepped toward a police sergeant, police reported. McKeown punched two officers and choked one and tried to remove an officer's firearm from its holster, according to police.
A friend of McKeown also was arrested when he approached the officers, claiming to be a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, and tried to take McKeown into custody, police said.
McKeown was charged with attempted first-degree theft of the firearm, two counts of first-degree assault on a law enforcement officer, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. But after a trial in August 2010, then-2nd Circuit Judge Joel August acquitted McKeown of the attempted theft charge and one count of first-degree assault on a law enforcement officer. McKeown pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of second-degree assault on a law enforcement officer, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail, one year's probation and 25 hours of community service and was ordered to take anger management classes.
Lee-Nakamoto also was charged in an unrelated matter on a warrant for failure to appear. Her bail was set at $1,000, according to police records.
* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.
