Police Beat

Advertiser Staff

Man gets life term for 1999 murder

A 31-year-old man Tuesday was sentenced in Circuit Court to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the 1999 slaying of a man whom he caught sleeping with his ex-girlfriend.

District Judge Gerald Kibe also sentenced Tyrone Galdones to a concurrent sentence of 10 years for carrying the weapon he used to shoot James Zoucha on Aug. 19, 1999.

Galdones must serve a minimum sentence of 20 years for the second-degree murder conviction because he used a semi-automatic handgun to kill Zoucha, 27, as he slept in the Nanakuli home of Tammy Aiwohi. The Hawai'i Paroling Authority later will set the date Galdones will become eligible for parole.

The jury convicted Galdones Nov. 13. Deputy City Prosecutor Franklin Pacarro Jr. had described the shooting as an execution after an enraged Galdones found Aiwohi, from whom he had separated two weeks earlier, in bed with Zoucha.

Deputy Public Defender Mary Helen Wong acknowledged Galdones shot Zoucha, but said Galdones' mind went blank after finding his girlfriend of 13 years and mother of the couple's two children with another man.

Wahiawa man's beating probed

Police opened an attempted murder investigation in the case of an unidentified man, an apparent beating victim, who was found unconscious on a Wahiawa sidewalk Monday night.

District police said the man was found about 9:15 p.m. near 302 California Ave. His face showed evidence of physical trauma, police said, and he was taken to Wahiawa General Hospital in critical condition. He was later transferred to The Queen's Medical Center.

Robbery leads to drug arrests

Three people were arrested Tuesday when marijuana plants were found at their Hale'iwa home — a discovery police made while investigating an unrelated robbery.

The case began about 7:40 a.m. yesterday when a Caucasian man in his 20s was seen stealing items from a car that a Japanese tourist had parked at Ali'i Beach Park.

The tourist confronted the robber, who assaulted him and then fled in a pickup truck.

Police went to the home of the truck's registered owner and found the marijuana. Two men and a woman were arrested for first-degree promotion of a detrimental drug. No arrests were made in connection with the robbery.

The robber is described as 6 feet tall, 280 pounds, with dark hair and a goatee, wearing a white shirt and tan shorts.