By William Cole
Advertiser Courts Writer
A 52-year-old man who claimed ties to Japanese organized crime was sentenced to 20 years in prison yesterday for beating, kidnapping and threatening his ex-wife.
Hidehisa Semba broke into his former wife’s Ala Moana apartment Jan. 18, 2000 and slashed her with a knife. He then told her the yakuza would kill her and he held her for 12 hours in a hotel room near the Honolulu airport, prosecutors said.
In September, Semba pleaded guilty to charges including burglary, two counts of kidnapping, terroristic threatening, assault and possession of methamphetamine. He chose not to comment at sentencing. City deputy prosecutor Dan Oyasato said he’ll ask the parole board that Semba serve the full 20 years.
"It’s one of the more egregious kidnappings I’ve seen in my 12 years as a prosecutor," Oyasato said. The victim was bound with duct tape, he said, put in a shopping cart and taken to a car. Two other people who Semba hired have been convicted for their part in the kidnapping, the prosecution said.
As part of the plea agreement, Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall ordered Semba to serve at least 2.6 years on the drug possession charge. Defense attorney William Harrison said the agreement was made with the prosecution’s decision not to seek extended terms.
Harrison previously said his client has no connection to the yakuza and if he made such threats, he did not know what he was saying. Harrison said Semba has a "long and substantial" psychiatric history, including a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but doctors believed his mental state did not substantially impair him at the time of the kidnapping.
Semba told doctors he heard his ex-wife’s voice in his head saying she wanted him to rescue her from her boyfriend, Harrison said. Although Oyasato said the underlying motive for the attack was never clear, he said the crime was "domestic related."
Crandall also ordered Semba to pay $10,500 restitution for a necklace that authorities said disappeared during the kidnapping. Harrison said his client, a Japanese national, wants to seek deportation following the 2 1/2-year prison term, but Oyasato said the Immigration and Naturalization Service usually doesn’t take deportation action before a sentence is served.
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