LIHU‘E — Nearly four months after reportedly pushing a Japanese visitor off a cliff along Kalalau Trail, 37-year-old Justin Wynn Klein is in police custody after being arrested Saturday at Lydgate Beach Park in Wailua.
Authorities received a tip Saturday afternoon about a possible sighting of the wanted fugitive at Lydgate, according to a county news release. Officers responded and located the Oregon native at approximately 5:30 p.m. near the park’s pavilions. He was arrested without incident and remains in custody at Kaua‘i Community Correctional Center on $1 million bail.
“He got picked up and we are ready to go (forward),” said County Prosecutor Justin Kollar, adding he wasn’t sure of “all the exact circumstances” of Klein’s arrest.
In late December, a grand jury returned an indictment against Klein for attempted second-degree murder charges alleging that he threw Azusa Ino, a Japanese national, off a cliff in Kalalau Valley Dec. 16, nearly killing her.
Ino, 31, was hiking with a companion at Na Pali Coast, on Kaua‘i’s North Shore, at the time of the incident and fell approximately 15 feet. She was airlifted from Kalalau and admitted to Wilcox Memorial Hospital in Lihu‘e in critical condition. She was released 10 days later and returned home to Japan with her family.
Following the Dec. 16 incident, police, firefighters and officers with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources closed the popular hiking trail and conducted a four-day sweep of the area, according to the release. The search turned up no sign of Klein and authorities continued their islandwide investigation, requesting the public’s assistance in locating the fugitive.
Kollar said he could not speculate about how or when Klein made it out of the Kalalau Valley.
CrimeStoppers was offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. It is unclear whether Saturday’s tipster will receive the reward.
“KPD is unable to release additional information at this time as the case is pending trial,” county spokeswoman Sarah Blane said Sunday, responding to a request from The Garden Island for additional information. “However, additional details will be made public during the course of court proceedings.”
Klein’s initial court appearance has not yet been scheduled, according to the release.
While Saturday’s arrest marks only the beginning of the criminal justice system, Police Chief Darryl Perry said in a news release Sunday he is “pleased” to have Klein — who managed to evade police for nearly four months — in custody.
“Our officers have worked diligently on this case to see this man be brought to justice for the heinous crime we believe he committed,” Perry said in the release. “We are grateful to our partnering law enforcement agencies for their collaboration on this case, and appreciate the quick work by our prosecuting attorneys to secure the grand jury indictment back in December under very challenging circumstances. Our community remained vigilant in their quest to find this wanted fugitive, and it is ultimately through their commitment that he was located and arrested.”
In the days, weeks and months following the incident, Kaua‘i Police Department received numerous tips from the public. None of the leads turned up any sign of Klein, who authorities urged the public not to approach as he was believed to be dangerous.
In emails sent to The Garden Island in January, Klein’s older sister, Jody Pearson, 42, of Georgia, said her brother was “not a savage or a murderer,” but rather “homeless, hungry and in a desperate situation.”
“My brother has a past, but accepting that he would purposely throw someone from a cliff is hard for me to believe,” she said.
Over the last six years, Pearson said Klein’s life changed from that of a devoted father and husband to a frequent drug user. Klein moved to Kaua‘i from Oregon last May “broke and homeless and looking for a new beginning,” she said.
• Chris D’Angelo, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-0441 or lifestyle@thegardenisland.com.
