Kailua man, 54, in federal custody on phantom gun charge

A 54-year-old career criminal arrested in January for breaking into the Oahu Country Club is in federal custody after being charged with a felony firearm in a traffic collision.

Jon Frederick Rapozo was out on bond in a state case when he was arrested Oct. 11 on a federal warrant after being charged in an Oct. 10 criminal complaint with being a felon in possession of ammunition. He is scheduled for a detention hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Rom A. Trader on Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion Oct. 16 to hold Rapozo without bail.

Rapozo has 42 prior state convictionsincluding assaulting a police officer, burglary, theft, breaking into a car, probation violation, assault and drug offenses.

He was arrested Jan. 7 along with Gary David Mendonca Jr., 39, and Jeffrey Glenn Werner, 51, and charged with second-degree burglary, a Class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.

The trio allegedly broke into and trashed a section of the men’s locker room at the Nuuanu country club.

In the federal case, according to an affidavit written by a FBI agent assigned to the Hawaii Violent Crime Task Force, Rapozo was driving a black Audi A4 sedan on Aug. 6, 2023, when he swerved to avoid a car and broke into two parked cars.

Emergency Medical Services technicians who responded to the crash treated Rapozo at the scene. He allegedly asked one of them to take clothes from the trunk of his car. The EMS technician opened a black bag, saw a gun inside and exclaimed, “He got a gun in here,” according to federal court documents.

Rapozo allegedly replied, “I never asked, I never asked,” followed by “I didn’t ask anybody. That’s not even my bag, sir.

Honolulu Police Department officers recovered the gun, which was described as a black polymer 9mm handgun with no serial number or manufacturer, otherwise known as a “ghost gun.”

Officers also found a magazine from the gun containing nine rounds of 9mm Luger ammunition.

On May 21, FBI agents interviewed Rapozo and showed him a photo of the firearm and ammunition recovered from his car. Rapozo allegedly admitted to FBI agents that the gun recovered was his.

“I don’t even know where I got that one,” Rapozo allegedly told agents, noting that he “didn’t even know it was there.”

Rapozo allegedly explained that the gun was “broken” and that it “didn’t even work.”

He allegedly told FBI agents that when he “buys guns off the street,” they sometimes come with a box of ammunition. Rapozo claimed he would buy ammunition from a store on a certain street because they would not verify his identity.

Rapozo was advised of his Miranda rights on October 8 and interviewed again by the FBI. He again allegedly admitted that the gun and ammunition belonged to him, but that the gun was broken, according to court documents.

He also allegedly told agents that he “was previously locked up for 30 years.”