Circuit Court Judge Patrick Border sentenced Miti Maugaotega Jr. to life without parole for the shooting of Eric Kawamoto, who encountered Maugaotega in the midst of burglarizing the Kawamoto home.

That penalty was the harshest atop a pile of sentences for 22 felony convictions. Prosecutors had sought extended sentences for several crimes on the basis that Maugaotega is a "multiple offender" under the law.

Border granted Prosecutor Peter Carlisle’s motion to make Maugaotega serve consecutive sentences on five separate criminal cases, three of which include additional life sentences.

As a result, said Carlisle, Maugaotega will have to wait 20 years before the state’s governor could consider commuting the life-without-parole sentence. And even if that’s granted, he said, Maugaotega must serve 50 years as a result of mandatory sentences imposed on several of the crimes, which include multiple weapons, drug, burglary, robbery and sexual assault charges.

Carlisle said after the hearing that he can think of no longer sentence ever being handed down in Hawai'i, even the one given Byran Uyesugi in the 1999 multiple slayings at Xerox Corp. He said after the hearing that he found that fact less shocking than Maugaotega’s capacity for a crime spree of increasing violence over such a short time.

"I cannot think of a crime wave that was more varied, or more intense," he said.

Maugaotega, who was 17 when the crimes were committed, stood quietly with his head down as Border pronounced sentence on each of the 22 counts. But earlier he showed his emotion, wiping away tears, when the judge denied him a new trial on the basis of a motion submitted by his lawyer, state Deputy Public Defender Walter Rodby.

Arguing that the jury harbored prejudice against his client because he was being tried as adult, Rodby presented a tape from a news broadcast. The taped interview quoted a juror saying that the referral of the case to Circuit Court factored into the conviction, saying "there must have been a reason for him being here instead of Family Court."

Border took over the case after the conviction because the judge who heard the trial, Marie Milks, retired.

Basing his decision on testimony by Rodby and Carlisle on the TV interview, Border ruled that the jury had acted appropriately, giving primary focus to the question of whether or not Maugaotega acted intentionally. The issue of Maugaotega’s youth, he said, was one raised by the defense as part of its own strategy to characterize the shooting as accidental.

Border also denied a motion that he recuse himself on the basis that he is godfather to one of Carlisle’s sons, saying that he sees the boy only infrequently.

Rodby was not available for comment after the sentencing.

Upon entering the courtroom, Maugaotega gave a smiling acknowledgment to his mother and sister, sitting in the back row. Both Maugaotega and his sister quietly offered the family’s apology to the victims.

"I want to apologize to Mr. Kawamoto and his family. ... I just want to say I’m sorry," Maugaotega said.

Kawamoto said after the sentencing that Border’s decision gave the victims "closure."

"I’m glad he got what he got," Kawamoto said.

During the hearing, Kawamoto gave a prepared statement in which he said Maugaotega showed "incredible selfishness."

"The selfishness he has is not an easy trait to change," he said. "That’s why I believe if released after a minimum term he will continue to feed that selfishness. He will return to hurting others to take what he wants."

Border also heard from Kawamoto’s wife, Leslie, who began her prepared testimony by addressing Maugaotega.

"That day was pure hell for me and my family, from the shock of hearing that he’d been shot and then not knowing if he was going to live or die," she said. "That day lasted an eternity."

Six days after a jury found him guilty in the Punchbowl shooting, Maugaotega pleaded no contest to:

• Two counts of first-degree burglary for breaking into Nu'uanu homes on May 23 and 28.

• Two counts of first-degree robbery, one count of first-degree burglary and a firearms offense in connection with the June 16 break-in of a Nu'uanu home.

• Two counts of first-degree sex assault and one count each of first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, second-degree assault and a firearms offense in connection with a June 23 incident at a Makiki-area home.

• Promoting prison contraband for possessing a "shank" — a potentially lethal, handmade, sharpened object — Aug. 17 while confined in the Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility.

The 55-year-old woman whom Maugaotega had pistol whipped and raped in the June 23 incident told the judge she still can’t sleep through the night.

"I just want you to know that my life has been changed forever," she said. "Waking up in your own home, being attacked by a young man waving a gun who beats me up, that’s not the way to go."