Puna man gets 25 years in carjacking case

By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — A Puna man shot by police during a carjacking was handed a 25-year prison term yesterday.

Big Island Judge Greg Nakamura sentenced Keola Nathen Kanae, 20, for the June 14 carjacking and for firing three blasts from a shotgun June 9 at a housewarming party in Hawaiian Paradise Park. The judge revoked Kanae's probation and resentenced him for a case last year in which he threatened to shoot his sister.

Nakamura set Kanae's mandatory minimum term at six years and eight months.

Kanae and Shaun "Mika" Thompson flagged a sedan on 'Ainaloa Boulevard and threatened a 64-year-old woman and her 65-year-old male passenger with a rifle. As police approached the vehicle, an officer shot Kanae, and Thompson fatally shot himself in the head with the rifle.

"I know I did wrong," Kanae said yesterday. "I was not planning to hurt nobody."

Nakamura said Kanae was the victim of child abuse and had a drug problem, but he had been given a chance when he threatened his sister.

Correction: Kanae's mandatory minimum term was misstated in a previous version of this story.