DeWayne McKinney, who made millions of dollars in Hawai'i after spending nearly two decades in a California prison for a murder he didn't commit, died early yesterday in Kaimuki in a moped accident.

Police said McKinney was on Wai'alae Avenue, heading toward Kahala, shortly after midnight when the 2007 moped he was driving drifted to the right and left the road just before 14th Avenue. He ran into a metal bus stop sign pole and then struck a wooden utility pole and was thrown from his moped. He was not wearing a helmet, police said. Speed may have been a factor but alcohol didn't appear to be, police said.

"After all that he went through and overcame, this is a sad ending" said Jeanine McKinney, his former wife and one-time business partner. "He was genuinely one of the nicest guys you'll ever know. I can't believe he's gone."

McKinney's prison-to-paradise story drew national attention. He arrived in Hawai'i in 2001 and started his Island ATM business with his $1.7 million settlement from the Orange County Police Department. At the time of his death he owned 42 ATMs on three islands and had a net worth of more than $6 million, said Carl Stein, whose company processed transactions for McKinney.

"I knew him five years and didn't know his story until three years ago, when I was back home in California and saw his picture and his story on the cover of the L.A. Times," said Brad McCague, manager of Arnold's Bar in Waikiki, where McKinney put one of his first Island ATM machines. "I was blown away. If you talked to him or saw him here you'd have no idea whatsoever what he went through or what he became. He was a real nice guy, but put yourself in his shoes. He was falsely accused and put away for 19 years and he wasn't sour at the world. … He was a remarkable guy. I would have been bitter."

A gang member as a teen, McKinney was wrongfully convicted of a 1980 robbery-murder at a Burger King in California and spent 19 years incarcerated with the likes of Charles Manson. In one interview with CBS, a laid-back McKinney called Manson "Charlie" and said there were far more scary people in prison than Manson.

In that interview, McKinney also said he had been stabbed at least eight times by other inmates during his stay and assaulted several more times.

McKinney wasn't set free until 2000, when a career criminal confessed to the crime.

At the time of his incarceration, McKinney's then-girlfriend was pregnant with their son Anthony, now 28, who is flying in to Honolulu today to help with funeral and estate plans, Jeanine McKinney said.

"I don't know if DeWayne ever really got over what he went through," she said. "It was part of him. He moved on, he forgave and didn't have resentment over it, but when you go through what he did — and he was so young — it becomes part of you."

Faye Kennedy, co-chair of the Hawaii Friends of Civil Rights and a former board member of the NAACP in Hawai'i, mourned McKinney's death yesterday.

"Years ago I arranged for him to come and speak to us at an NAACP event but even before that I was very aware of his story and impressed with how he became so successful and wasn't more damaged after what he went through," Kennedy said. "Before I came to Hawai'i I was a social worker with the New York Department of Parole, so I was always involved in the criminal justice system. Those who have worked in that area are well aware that there are many miscarriages of justice in the system, especially with African Americans and minorities. … For him to come out and overcome the way he did, to have that wonderful life he created and live on the beach in Hawai'i Kai, that's just amazing."

The year after McKinney was released from prison, he married Jeanine and they moved to O'ahu, where she had grown up.

They divorced in 2006 and split their ATM business but remained close friends, she said. His sister Brenda operates his business on Kaua'i. There was no word on what will happen to the rest of his business.

"Since we divorced he's been living in our big house and I'm living right down the street. We've been trying to sell for quite a while but it's a tough market right now for that kind of home," Jeanine said. "It's so beautiful and big: 5,000 square feet right on the marina. It's $2.3 million. ... DeWayne would take the boat out, sit on the lanai and relax, hit The Shack, work out at 24 Hour Fitness ... he was everywhere in Hawai'i Kai."

McCague said McKinney would often use his moped to service his ATM machines.

"He'd have wads of cash in his backpack to fill the machines," McCague said.

In the years after his release from prison, McKinney spoke frequently at anti-death-penalty conferences. Prosecutors originally sought the death penalty for him, but he was sentenced to life in prison without parole after jurors deadlocked in the penalty portion of his trial.

McKinney received letters from inmates and families of wrongfully accused prisoners and would try to help them, Jeanine said. Sometimes it was financial help, other times advice, his ex-wife said.

"In Hawai'i he would help anyone who asked," she said. "He was just a generous guy."

Funeral services are pending, but Jeanine hopes to have a cremation ceremony a week from today on Lanikai Beach.

"He has a lot of friends who want to come in for the ceremony," she said. "He touched a lot of lives."