A Kekaha man was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday for firing a gun at a car with a family in it on the way to Koke‘e State Park David Mainaaupo, 22, of Kekaha, was sentenced to five years
A Kekaha man was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday for firing a gun at a car with a family in it on the way to Koke‘e State Park
David Mainaaupo, 22, of Kekaha, was sentenced to five years imprisonment, with a mandatory minimum stay of three years, after pleading guilty in April to first-degree terroristic threatening, first-degree reckless endangerment, and pleading no contest to a charge of keeping a loaded firearm in an illegal place to have one.
According to prosecutors, Mainaaupo was heading up Kokee Road on Dec. 1 of last year when he got out of his car and fired at a vehicle that was following him. Three people were in the car, but no one was hurt.
His lawyer, Karen Dennemeyer, said Mainaaupo is “a very young man who’s made a very big mistake.
“He was feeling threatened when this occurred,” Dennemeyer said in Fifth Circuit Court. “He felt his life was in danger.”
Mainaaupo also apologized for his actions, saying he knew they were wrong, and if the family were in court, he would apologize to them directly.
Considering the nature of the crime, that the defendant shot a firearm at people and then failed to assist police in recovering the gun, County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jennifer Winn said she asked for two, consecutive, five-year terms.
But Fifth Circuit Court Judge George M. Masuoka decided that five years was an appropriate sentence, and set the sentences on the three Class-C felonies to run concurrently.
