Police became aware that a 23-year-old Honokaa man allegedly used the messaging app Snapchat to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex after her 17-year-old sister noticed the sexually explicit messages on her younger sister’s phone and notified authorities, according to court documents filed by police.

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Police, with the permission of the girl’s guardian grandmother, received the phone on June 17, and detectives continued chatting with the suspect, Kainalu Palik, while posing as the girl.

Prior to that, the girl informed Palik that she was only 14, but Palik allegedly “continued to have sexualized conversations with her.”

The messages allegedly from Palik quoted in court documents are all too explicit to be printed in the Tribune-Herald.

Palik on Monday agreed to meet who he thought was the girl at the Waimea Food Court by the Kahilu Theatre. When he rolled up at about 5 p.m. in a white 2019 Nissan Frontier pickup truck, an undercover officer placed him under arrest on suspicion of first-degree electronic enticement of a child.

Police recovered two phones from the truck, but police were awaiting a search warrant before investigating their contents, the documents state.

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According to police, Palik was advised of his rights, requested an attorney and wasn’t interviewed. He was charged on Tuesday on the advice of prosecutors.

At Palik’s initial court appearance Thursday, Kona District Judge Jeremy Butterfield granted a motion by Deputy Public Defender Kyla Livingston for a mental exam to determine Palik’s fitness to stand trial and penal responsibility — which means whether he had the capacity to determine the wrongfulness and illegality of his alleged actions at the time they occurred.

Butterfield denied a defense request to free Palik on supervised release, a form of cashless bail. The judge ordered Palik to return to court July 28.

First-degree electronic enticement of a child is a Class B felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment.

Palik, who has no prior felony convictions, remains in custody at Hawaii Community Correctional Center on $50,000 bail.

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Email John Burnett at [email protected].