Halawa escapee pleads no contest
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
David Scribner, one of three men who escaped from Halawa prison on April 4 and eluded police for six days by hiding in Hau'ula Valley, pleaded no contest yesterday to escape and robbery charges.
In a related matter, Circuit Judge Marie Milks rejected requests from another of the escapees, convicted bank robber Albert Batalona, to take herself off the case and to have his case tried on a Neighbor Island if not on the Mainland.
BATALONA
SCRIBNER
Scribner told Milks that he realizes he faces a prison term of up to five years on the second-degree escape charge and 10 years on the second-degree robbery charge, which stems from his part in a carjacking incident at Stadium Mall shortly after he, Batalona and Warren Elicker escaped.
Milks told Scribner that because he has two prior felony convictions, the prosecution could ask to have him sentenced as a repeat offender and he would then face 10 years on the escape charge, 20 years on the robbery charge and 30 years over all if she were to order the sentences to run consecutively.
And because he has two prior felony convictions for a robbery and an escape, Scribner faces mandatory minimum terms of three years and four months on the new escape charge and six years and eight months on the latest robbery charge, Milks said.
She set a sentencing date for Scribner of Aug. 14.
Scribner's lawyer, Adrienne Sanders, said her client wanted to enter his no-contest pleas to the charges resulting from the escape even earlier but she wanted to be sure that he knew beforehand what the consequences would be.
"He knows that he is responsible for his own behavior," Sanders said in explaining why Scribner chose not to fight the charges.
Scribner, 20, has seven felony convictions. He was serving a 10-year sentence for October 2002 robbery and escape convictions.
Batalona, 27, had been serving a sentence of life without parole following his conviction on robbery and attempted first-degree murder charges for shooting a semiautomatic assault rifle at a police officer in 1999 after the armed takeover robbery of American Savings Bank's branch on Hunakai Street in Kahala.
Elicker, 25, was serving a 40-year sentence for a 2001 home-invasion robbery of a Punalu'u couple and other crimes.
At a hearing later in the day, Batalona's lawyer, Nelson Goo, said Milks should not preside over Batalona's trial on the escape and robbery charges because she "lectured" Batalona when he was sentenced in September 2000 to life without parole in connection with the 1999 bank robbery.
Goo said Milks told Batalona at his sentencing that he had a history of blaming others for his problems.
But Milks said she was quoting from findings contained in Batalona's presentence report and was not independently admonishing him.
Milks also rejected Goo's request that Batalona be tried on the Mainland or at least on one of the Neighbor Islands.
Goo said media coverage of Batalona's role in the 1999 bank robbery and the ensuing trial as well as coverage given to the April prison escape was both "pervasive and cumulative."
It will be difficult to find jurors in Hawai'i who have not read, seen or heard news reports about Batalona and the others and formed negative opinions, Goo said.
But Milks said that other high-profile cases, some of which involved multiple or heinous murders, received expansive media coverage and yet the defendants were not granted a change of venue and sufficient impartial jurors were found to try those cases on O'ahu.
Milks set a trial date of Oct. 1 for Batalona and Elicker.
