Rebar threatening charges upheld at hearing

Police: Lahaina man lunged at them with ribbed bar of steel

WAILUKU -- When patrol officers responded to a 911 call early Monday at Lahaina Baptist Church, they said an agitated man thrust a 4-foot-long piece of rebar toward them.

Officer Tamara Pellazar said the man pulled the rebar spear out of the ground before "he started lunging at me with the pole."

"He was saying he's going to kill me too," Pellazar said. "He just kept saying everyone's a liar and yelling, swearing."

During a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Wailuku District Court, Pellazar and two other Lahaina patrol officers identified Dexter Lara as the suspect wielding the rebar.

Judge Kirstin Hamman ruled there was sufficient evidence to support charges of first-degree unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle and three counts of first-degree terroristic threatening against Lara, 56, of Lahaina.

He is also charged with third-degree assault and fourth-degree theft.

A 17-year-old boy testified he had been sleeping after work in the driver's seat of his car, parked near the church on Wainee Street, when he heard banging and woke up. The back window behind his seat had been rolled down and a man was going through the car, the teenager said.

He said the man started throwing clothes out the car window before wrapping a pair of gray joggers around his hand and punching the boy twice in his face. "He was threatening me if I didn't get out of my car, he would kill me," the teenager said.

He said he called 911 and gave his location before he dropped his phone, which fell on the seat next to him.

Police officers were dispatched to the church at about 2:10 a.m. Responding to the call, Pellazar said she saw Lara standing outside a silver four-door Honda sedan and clothing all over the ground. In the car, she saw a younger male "crunched down, hiding in the passenger floorboard."

When she asked Lara what he was doing, "he just started yelling," Pellazar said.

"He seemed agitated," she said. "He was bouncing around."

When Pellazar tried to talk to Lara, he turned and walked across the street to Waiola Church, she said. She said Lara continued yelling and swearing as he walked into the graveyard, where he pulled the rebar out of the ground.

At one point, Pellazar said she got behind a 3-foot-wall.

Officer Marcus Range, who arrived on the scene as Pellazar was talking to Lara, said Lara was holding the rebar in both hands. "He was moving it in a forward motion towards us," Range said. "He was making threats."

Lara was "highly agitated," said officer Trenton Aurello. When he ordered Lara to drop the rebar, "he would mumble certain things -- 'I'll kill you guys' and 'everyone lies,' " Aurello said.

"He was making thrusting motions towards us and making comments that he would kill us," Aurello said.

He said Lara was spiking the rebar in the ground, then picking it up quickly.

After three to four minutes, Lara began making his way to the graveyard and thrust the rebar in the ground, Aurello said. "That's when he followed our commands" and was arrested, Aurello said.

He said he was familiar with Lara from an earlier case that night involving trespassing at a shelter.

Lara was being held in lieu of $22,000 bail.

He is set to be arraigned March 18 in 2nd Circuit Court.

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.