The man charged yesterday with Sunday's stabbing death of a 19-year-old Waimanalo man is a convicted drug offender recently accused of domestic violence, officials said yesterday.

Glenn J.K. Keohokapu Jr., 35, of Waimanalo, was being held last night on $300,000 bail after being charged with second-degree murder.

Police said Keohokapu allegedly stabbed Steven Wilcox in the parking lot of a Kane'ohe bar early Sunday morning after Wilcox intervened while Keohokapu was fighting with a woman, identified by witnesses as his wife, Kauilani Ward.

Keohokapu was arrested Monday night, the same day he had failed to appear in court for allegedly violating a restraining order issued to protect Ward.

According to a police affidavit filed yesterday, Keohokapu and his wife were together at Club Komomai in Kane'ohe late Saturday night and began fighting in the bar's parking lot shortly after midnight. At least one witness said Keohokapu was punching his wife.

Witnesses told police that Wilcox — who had exchanged words with Keohokapu inside the bar earlier in the evening — was standing to one side in the parking lot while another man and woman tried to break up the domestic argument.

Keohokapu, however, turned on Wilcox and challenged him to a fight, reportedly saying, "Come and I'll stab you."

Another witness said he heard Wilcox say, "That's one female" to Keohokapu, causing him to go after Wilcox.

As the two fought, Keohokapu lunged at Wilcox with a knife and stabbed him in the chest, several witnesses told police.

Wilcox's friend Robin Gregory told police there had been a minor disagreement between the men earlier in the evening over Gregory allegedly looking at Keohokapu's wife in the bar. However, both Gregory and Keohokapu's brother, Stille, told police they thought everything had been settled because Wilcox was buying the brothers drinks.

In the parking lot, Stille Keohokapu told police he tried to separate Wilcox and his brother, but the two moved to the side of a pickup truck. He then saw Wilcox collapse to the ground bleeding from his chest.

Glenn Keohokapu and his wife then fled the area in their gray Acura sedan, Stille Keohokapu said.

On Monday, police tracked the car to a home in Waimanalo where Keohokapu used to live and arrested him.

Court records show that Keohokapu's wife filed for a restraining order against her husband in March, alleging she feared for her life because of his violent behavior while on drugs.

In January, she said, she was punched, slapped, choked and kicked when she "grabbed the keys to leave the house" to get away from him.

In March, she alleged, Keohokapu pushed her to the ground, "choked my neck" and verbally abused her "to take the focus off the bad that he does on drugs."

She said she believed "right at the moment my life is in danger" and asked for the restraining order "to protect myself until I can move to another state with (my) mother."

A three-month restraining order was granted and was due to expire Monday.

On April 24, the city prosecutor's office filed a criminal complaint against Keohokapu, accusing him of violating the protective order.

He pleaded not guilty and was scheduled to appear before Family Court Judge Rhonda Nishimura Monday. He did not appear and Nishimura ordered a bench warrant for his arrest.

In April 2003, Keohokapu had been sentenced to five years in prison, with a two-year mandatory minimum sentence, for third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug.