Kendra-Leah Sabin cradled her boyfriend’s head as blood dripped down his face and out of his nose earlier this month on Lanai.

Sabin said she could hear Sionetelua Koloi gurgling, but couldn’t see his face because it was too dark. Touching his face, she could feel it was slimy so she shined his face with the light from her phone.

“There’s just blood all over,” Sabin said in a phone interview Friday. “He’s gasping for air, and there’s just chunks of stuff and blood coming out of his nose.”

Koloi, 46, was rushed to the hospital, but he died just before midnight May 11.

Sabin’s cousin, Travis Morita, 35, of Lanai City was arrested and has since been charged with second-degree murder.

The incident occurred at 10:37 p.m. May 11 when police responded to a report of a man injured during a fight at the intersection of Fraser Avenue and Kaumalapau Highway in Lanai City, police said. Police found Koloi lying on the ground on his right side with injuries to his head and face, with Sabin by his side.

Witnesses told police the two men argued at the rear of Morita’s residence. The argument ended when Koloi left the area, police said. But Koloi later returned to Morita’s residence where another argument escalated into a fight.

According to witnesses, Morita gained the upper hand when he knocked Koloi to the ground, mounted him and began punching him in the face multiple times, police said. Bystanders stopped Morita by pulling him off of Koloi.

Koloi was taken to Lanai Community Hospital in critical condition. He was pronounced dead at 11:39 p.m.

Sabin told The Maui News she was living with Koloi on Lanai, and they were the parents of two daughters. One is 8 years old, and the other is 19. She attends the University of Hawaii at Manoa on a basketball scholarship.

Sabin verified that Koloi and her cousin, who goes by “TJ,” argued on May 11, but they “hugged and said their apologies” before they separated. She said that the argument stemmed from Koloi’s attempts to calm Morita down over a separate incident her cousin was angry about that did not involve Koloi.

“It was an argument that had nothing to do with Sione,” she said.

Sabin picked Koloi up from Morita’s house and took him to the ILWU Hall where friends and family were setting up decorations for their oldest daughter’s baby shower. She told Koloi to stop arguing with her cousin because he had to meet with him at 5:30 a.m. the next day to make the imu for the shower.

“Sione left, and I thought he went home,” Sabin said. “No one can picture Sione going back over there to pick a fight. Sione is not like that.

“I truly believe in my heart that he went back to apologize.”

At around 10 p.m., Sabin got a call from Morita’s wife, who told her to return to the house. She told Sabin that Morita had knocked Koloi out and that he was lying on the ground.

Sabin started to panic and caught a ride from a friend to the house. A few minutes later, though, Morita’s wife called back again, “frantic and saying, ‘You need to hurry up. Sione is still knocked on the ground,’ ” Sabin recalled.

“I see Sione laying on the ground on his right side and two of TJ’s friends just standing there,” Sabin said. “I’m freaking out because I’m just thinking it was one lucky punch and he went down because they weren’t tending to him.”

Morita told Sabin that Koloi returned to tell him to get in his truck so they could drive to a nearby field to “finish this” and punched Koloi in self-defense. Morita told Sabin that they each hit each other twice, and that Koloi fell to the ground and blacked out. She said she did not see any marks or scratches on Morita’s face.

Sabin knelt down beside Koloi to prop his head up and noticed he was biting his tongue. She felt the left side of his mouth and noticed his teeth were broken.

“I pulled down the bottom of his jaw, and he starts gasping for air,” she said. “Everyone was just standing there and watching me. Nobody came to help me wipe his face or clear his nose so he could breathe. I just started yelling for them to call 911.”

Sabin arrived at the house around 10:15 p.m. and said no one at Morita’s house had called 911 until after she told them. She said police told her that only one call was made to 911.

“He’s laying there for at least 15 minutes before I get there,” Sabin said. “No one rendered aid for him. No one kneeled down to help me. You see how his face was rearranged, and all they did was roll him to his side and didn’t call 911. That part is so disturbing to me. Maybe they could’ve saved his life if they had called 911.”

When first responders arrived, Koloi swung his arms slightly as they put him on the gurney, Sabin said. She followed the ambulance to the hospital but initially was not let into the room where he was being treated.

She said she sneaked in behind a firefighter and sat in the hallway where she could hear doctors giving him CPR.

“That’s when I broke down,” she said.

A doctor in the room heard her and brought her in to sit beside Koloi. She rubbed his leg as one doctor used ultrasound equipment to see if his heart was beating.

“He told me to just keep talking to him so he can hear you,” Sabin said. “When he scanned his heart, it started to pump and I was a little hopeful. I could see his heart on the screen, and I thought he was trying to fight and come back. But then it stopped.”

Doctors asked Sabin if she wanted them to continue doing CPR, but they told her that they had been at it for 35 minutes. Koloi’s brain was hemorrhaging and blood was pouring out of his nose and mouth. Sabin declined.

“I knew this man for 21 years,” she said. “I know every freckle on his face, and I couldn’t recognize him.”

Sabin’s oldest daughter came to the hospital room and crawled on the ground in tears, Sabin said. She said she did not want to stand up to see her father’s face.

The following Monday, Sabin went to the morgue without her daughters so they would not have to see their father’s body. Initially, police charged Morita with manslaughter, but they increased it to murder after Koloi’s autopsy.

“For them (Morita and his friends) to say he was punched twice . . . that’s not twice for so much damage,” Sabin said. “For his brain to hemorrhage, his whole face is just fractured. His eyes were so swollen and black. His nose was broken. I felt like I was staring at a stranger.”

Sabin remembered Koloi as a loving father, coach and friend. She said he worked as a journeyman finish carpenter for the past eight years on Lanai and in Lahaina.

The couple were in the process of breaking down their old home and planning to rebuild, Sabin said. They also were planning to look after their daughter’s child to help her finish college in two more years.

“We had so much plans,” she said.

Born and raised in American Samoa, Koloi moved to Maui in 1990. Four years later, he moved to Lanai and eventually met Sabin in 1996.

“He was very involved with the community,” Sabin said. “A lot of people loved him here and in Lahaina.”

Sabin said Koloi helped coach Pop Warner football and Menehune basketball teams in both Lanai and Lahaina. She said he was part of the crew working on renovations of the Lodge at Koele resort and helped build Lanai’s movie theater.

“All his bosses and co-workers had nothing but good things to say about him,” Sabin said. “Every day he comes to work smiling and happy. Even the cooks said when he comes by to pick up lunch, he’s always offering to help.”

While Sabin’s family was devastated by Koloi’s death, the alleged murder has left the community broken. Sabin said it has been difficult on the small, close-knit island because Morita is her first cousin.

“The community is divided because of all the different stories being told,” she said. “My family is big here, and there’s just division amongst them. This is something Sione would never want. He did anything and everything for my side of the family. He’s never one to pick a fight. He would just sit and laugh and talk about work. No negatives. No getting mad at anybody.”

The family is planning a celebration of life for Koloi on Lanai. Preparing the arrangements has helped keep Sabin’s mind occupied, but she is still reminded of his death every day.

“It’s at night getting ready for bed and time to say prayers when it hits me the most because I know he’s not here,” she said. “The normal routines when he was here every day is the hardest part to get used to.”

“The main thing is that everyone remembers the happy and good memories,” Sabin continued. “Sione’s laughing and how he helped people out of his heart and never expected anything in return.

“I know the truth will come out so Sione can finally rest in peace.”

* Chris Sugidono can be reached at csugidono@mauinews.com.