Hostage-taker gets 25-year sentence

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — A Big Island man who took a hostage at gunpoint and barricaded himself in a room at the Hawai'i Naniloa Resort was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison.

The incident began Feb. 21, 2003, after David Robert Field, 36, checked into a second-floor room at the Hilo hotel with a woman. Police, who had been looking to arrest him for a probation violation and contempt of court, were tipped off that Field was at the hotel.

As the woman and Field stepped out of their room, Field saw police in the hallway and fled to a balcony. He broke a plate-glass window to escape, climbed to the third floor, broke another window and re-entered the hotel, police said.

From there Field managed to get to the eighth floor, where he used a .25-caliber gun to take 51-year-old Arnold Koss hostage. Field barricaded himself in the Maui man's room at 6:30 p.m. and did not surrender until the following morning.

Police evacuated many of the hotel's 300 guests during the 18-hour standoff.

On Monday, Deputy Public Defender Michael Ebesugawa said Field was suffering from a manic episode at the time and was not trying to hurt anyone.

Field pleaded guilty to kidnapping, terroristic threatening, using a firearm during commission of a felony, and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, charges that could have resulted in a life sentence.

Hilo Circuit Court Judge Greg Nakamura imposed a sentence of 20 years in prison, with a minimum term of six years and eight months. Nakamura also resentenced Field to a consecutive five-year term for a 2001 auto-theft conviction.

Koss sued the hotel last year, alleging he suffered severe and permanent physical injury and mental distress from the ordeal.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.