LIHUE — Youthful offender status helped save a 20-year-old Kekaha man from a 10-year prison sentence. Hapaki Mainaaupo has been held at Kauai Community Correctional Center since 2012. He was sentenced for eight charges in five cases, including robbery with
LIHUE — Youthful offender status helped save a 20-year-old Kekaha man from a 10-year prison sentence.
Hapaki Mainaaupo has been held at Kauai Community Correctional Center since 2012. He was sentenced for eight charges in five cases, including robbery with a firearm, terroristic threatening, assault, assault of a police officer and disorderly conduct.
But the defendant’s young age helped lessen the judicial blow at Wednesday’ sentencing in 5th Circuit Court.
Judge Kathleen Watanabe said the court would not grant probation for the defendant, but would give him a considerable break by sentencing him as a youthful offender.
She sentenced Mainaaupo to five years in prison for the armed robbery charge, a class B felony that could have been a 10-year term. His three class C felony charges include terroristic threatening and assault of a police officer and were reduced to four years.
The court may sentence a young adult convicted of a felony to a special term if it satisfies correction and rehabilitation requirements and does not jeopardize public safety.
Mainaaupo read a letter to the judge, saying the experience of serving time in jail with both his father and elder brother was a wake-up call. He wanted to end the family’s cycle of jail that spanned generations.
Watanabe said it was good to hear the defendant say he was ready to accept responsibility for his actions.
“It’s time to own up,” Watanabe said.
County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Shauna Lee Cahill said the seven crimes occurred between 2011 and 2013 and increased in severity and violence in each event. She asked for the full 10-year term.
She said the defendant has had several opportunities to change, but instead committed three new crimes while on bail, and two more while on supervised release.
The defendant head-butted a police officer, held a gun to the face of a robbery victim and told her, “She was going to die,” and threatened people with a machete before damaging their vehicle.
Court-appointed defense attorney Warren Perry asked the court to place him on probation for high-risk offenders.
“We believe the full 10-year prison term would have been the best option to protect the community from this defendant,” said County Prosecuting Attorney Justin Kollar. “His pattern of repeated and escalating crimes, even while facing other charges, makes it clear that he has little regard for those around him.”
