Posted on: Friday, February 14, 2003

Man sentenced to life in 2000 beating death

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

A man who was convicted of two murders in 1973 and the baseball bat beating death of a homeless man at Ke'ehi Lagoon Park in October 2000 was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Circuit Judge Richard Perkins denied a request by city Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Van Marter to sentence Sapatumoeese Maluia to life without parole for the beating death of Feao Tupuola Jr., 48.

Van Marter said a 1996 law gives judges the option of sentencing someone who has a past murder conviction to life without parole for any additional murder convictions.

Maluia, 57, was convicted in 1974 of the shotgun murders of his girlfriend and her mother. He completed parole in that case in 1998.

But Perkins agreed with Maluia's lawyer, state Deputy Public Defender Todd Eddins, that the 1996 law applies only to someone who is convicted of murder after the law was enacted and who is then convicted of one or more subsequent murders.

Perkins said his only option was to sentence Maluia to life with the possibility of parole.

It will be up to the Hawai'i Paroling Authority to determine how long Maluia will be kept behind bars before he is eligible for parole.

Van Marter said he plans to appeal Perkins' interpretation of the 1996 law. Maluia said at his sentencing yesterday that he regretted killing Tupuola but he told Perkins that he acted in self-defense, an argument rejected by a jury during his trial last fall.