HONOLULU — Circuit Judge Shanlyn Park expressed sympathy Tuesday not just for the 45-year-old murder victim and his family, but for the 25-year-old Wahiawa man she was sending to prison for life with the possibility of parole in the Nov. 19, 2019, fatal stabbing of a family friend.
“I am very sorry for the family of Isaac Lee and all the pain and suffering that Mr. Lee” experienced before he died, she said, adding she hoped the sentencing provided a sense of closure. “I understand he had a loving family, and he had challenges he was attempting to overcome.”
Then in a rare moment of sympathy for the man convicted of murder, the judge said, “When I look at Mr. Dela Cruz and all that I learned about him, he too is an individual who is struggling for many, many reasons.”
She said, after looking at his past, his life, his upbringing, “it’s incredibly tragic. He didn’t have any real parental guidance and struggled with mental health and substance abuse.
“I hope during his period of incarceration he’s able to address these issues, and I hope that the family, through this process, can move forward in life, because there’s no bringing Mr. Lee back.”
On April 5 a Circuit Court jury rendered a guilty verdict of second-degree murder. Dela Cruz was 21 years old at the time of the stabbing of Lee, a father of three.
Lee was a good friend of Dela Cruz’s mother, who always helped her out, said Deputy Prosecutor Kelsi Guerra.
The two men were both smoking methamphetamine before the stabbing in Dela Cruz’s mother’s Wahiawa apartment, where Dela Cruz also lived.
The state provided evidence, including a glass pipe, to substantiate Dela Cruz’s meth use.
Dela Cruz told police he used a Milwaukee tool knife to stab Lee.
Before the judge sentenced Dela Cruz, Lee’s youngest child, 22-year-old son Donovan Lee, faced Dela Cruz and said that it would have been nice for Lee to have been able to see his grandchildren.
“I don’t want to leave here with any hate,” he told his father’s killer, adding that he was filled with mixed emotions and wished him the best.
Lee’s ex-wife, Dawn Misaalefua, and mother of their three children, said, “He was a good person. He’s always kind. I just feel bad for the kids, his two beautiful grandchildren he’s never going to see. … He would give you the shirt off his back.”
Despite a hard life, his mom pushed him to achieve, she said. She said Lee, a 1991 graduate of Pearl City High School, was a star player on the school’s football team and received lots of offers from various colleges. But after his mother’s early death, “he lost his way.”
Misaalefua said Lee’s death was shocking. Lee had been homeless, but “I told him, if you ever need anything, just come,” she said.
Deputy Public Defender Sat Freedman addressed Lee’s family, saying he instructed his client not to talk about the night of the incident because, as he told the court, he will be filing an appeal.
“He’s also a human being and he has a heart,” Freedman said. “It’s a terrible tragedy. My client hasn’t done anything like this before. It makes no sense.”
Dela Cruz, wearing a green, black and white plaid shirt, and his hair in a knot atop his head, said, “To his loved ones and family, I like to apologize for my actions.”
Jossette Sedeno, Dela Cruz’s mother, testified at trial to her use of drugs and that, as a child, Dela Cruz was removed from her care and placed in foster care, Guerra said. At the time of the stabbing, Dela Cruz had just started to live with her again, she said.
Court records say Sedeno told police that at about 6:15 p.m. Nov. 19, the two men were on the balcony just outside her bedroom at 302 Ohai Place, while she was in the bedroom watching TV. She heard screaming, and Dela Cruz ran through her bedroom.
Sedeno found Lee on the balcony bleeding profusely from his arms and chest, court records show. He was taken in critical condition to the hospital where he died at 7:50 p.m.
Dela Cruz fled in his mother’s vehicle and was later found at 9:18 p.m. lying facedown on the roadway on Ohai Place.
Dela Cruz had a criminal record of misdemeanor assault and carrying a deadly weapon as well as petty misdemeanor theft and promoting a dangerous drug.
