Prosecutor Peter Carlisle, left, hugs Eric Kawamoto after today’s jury verdict. Kawamoto was shot and critically wounded last summer in his home. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

In addition, the jury found Miti Maugaotega Jr. guilty as charged on eight other criminal counts including burglary, robbery, weapons offenses and drug charges.

Maugaotega faces life in prison with the possibility of parole.

During his week-long trial, Maugaotega did not deny shooting Eric Kawamoto, who came home from his civilian job at Pearl Harbor on June 26 and found Maugaotega burglarizing the duplex on Puowaina Drive but said he never intended to kill Kawamoto.

Maugaotega admitted to pointing a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun at Kawamoto, demanding money from his wallet and then ordering him at gunpoint to the lowest level of the tri-level home.

Kawamoto, 44, was shot when he balked at going all the way down the stairs, believing Maugaotega would shoot him once they reached the lowest level.

During his trial testimony, Kawamoto said the gun did not fire when Maugaotega pulled the trigger the first time and that he loaded a new bullet and pulled the trigger a second time. Kawamoto said that even though the bullet hit him in the chest, he was able to stagger to the adjoining duplex and ask for help.

"We're relieved that the trial is over," Kawamoto said yesterday. "We hope that (Maugaotega) will receive the stiffest possible sentence so he cannot harm anyone else in our community."

Kawamoto said he wanted to thank the jury "for their efforts in coming to a just decision," the Honolulu Police Department "for apprehending this criminal and gathering the evidence for trial" and Honolulu City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle and his staff for "their hard work and support during this ordeal." Maugaotega is scheduled to be sentenced May 11.

Kawamoto, who was listed in extremely critical condition when he arrived at The Queen's Medical Center shortly after the shooting, spent five days in the hospital and has since recovered from the shooting.

While deliberating on Monday, the jury had asked that parts of the trial transcript be read back to them.

Juror Kim Char Meredith today said that the sticking point lay in the definition of attempted murder, which requires that the act be "intentional or knowing."

Although some jurors were unclear on Maugaotega's intention, Meredith said, the transcript made it clear that it was a "knowing" act. The key discussion surrounded the preparation for a second shot after the gun had misfired, she said.

"The prosecutor asked, 'So you decided to rack back the gun?' and he said 'Yes,'" she said. "That lends itself to the knowingness."

Meredith added that the jurors dismissed Kawamoto's statement to Maugaotega — "If you're gonna shoot me, just (expletive) shoot me" — simply as evidence of the "adrenaline that was pumping in both of them."