Posted on: Saturday, September 4, 2004
HAWAI'I BRIEFS
20-year sentence for strangulation
Advertiser Staff
A 36-year-old man was sentenced yesterday to a maximum 20-year term for manslaughter for the strangulation of a Waikiki store owner last year.
Daiki Iba of Japan was sentenced by Circuit Judge Michael Town for recklessly killing Michiko Sakata, 44, of the Seawind Surf and Sea store on Royal Hawaiian Avenue on April 22 last year.
Iba had been charged with murder, but a Circuit Court jury in June found him guilty of the lesser manslaughter charge.
City prosecutors contended Iba wanted to trick Sakata out of $24,000 in a money exchange transaction, but his defense was that he didn't intend to defraud her and he acted in self defense after she attacked him.
The Hawai'i Paroling Authority will later set the minimum term Iba must serve before he can be released on parole.
HANA, Maui — After three weeks of searching for a snake in Hana, a multi-agency rapid response team packed up their things yesterday and went home, officials said.
The team of trained wildlife officials from state, federal and county agencies were called to the Hamoa area south of Hana after two people reported seeing a 3-foot snake crossing the Hana Highway Aug. 10.
It was the first time the rapid response team was mobilized since undergoing training on Guam last year, and members were joined by two experts from Guam and one from the Northern Mariana Islands.
The plan was to search methodically in an ever widening swath around where the snake was sighted. Two dozen traps using dead mice for bait were also set in the field and checked daily.
Members of the recently activated 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry Army Reserve unit will wear 29th Infantry Brigade patches instead of their own unit patch during their deployment in Iraq, a military official said yesterday.
The 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry, is the only battalion-sized Army unit authorized to wear its own patch, but Hawai'i National Guard Brig. Gen. Joe Chaves, commander of the 29th Infantry Brigade, wants all 29th Infantry units — from Hawai'i, California, Oregon and American Samoa — to wear the same uniform and the same patch in Iraq.
"It's about building a cohesive team and following regulations," said Maj. Chuck Anthony, spokesman for the Hawai'i National Guard and 29th Infantry Brigade.
A 36-year-old Pearl City man remained in The Queen's Medical Center yesterday with critical injuries he suffered when the motorcycle he was riding crashed head-on at about 10:30 Thursday night into a sport utility vehicle on Kaonohi Street.
Police traffic investigators said the man was traveling toward Honolulu on Kamehameha Highway when he made a left turn into oncoming traffic on Kaonohi Street and collided with a 2000 Nissan Xterra.
A 21-year-old woman driving the Xterra was not injured nor were her passengers, a woman, 20, and a man, 23.
Police said speed may have been a factor in the accident but had not determined whether alcohol or drugs played a part in the collision.
The motorcyclist was not wearing a helmet, police said.
A tour boat discovered a body floating in the ocean off Lahaina yesterday, and Maui police were investigating.
The boat, Ocean Quest, radioed authorities after the body was spotted in the water at about 1 p.m., officials said. The body was retrieved by the Maui Department of Fire Control's rescue helicopter.
No information was available late yesterday afternoon about who the victim was or the circumstances surrounding the death.
The west-bound lanes of the Moanalua Freeway will be closed from the School Street on-ramp to Red Hill at night beginning Monday as resurfacing work resumes.
The freeway will be closed at midnight Monday until 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, and from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. Tuesday through Friday. All west-bound on-ramps from the School Street on-ramp to Red Hill also will be close during these periods.
Motorists are advised to take either Dillingham Boulevard or Nimitz Highway to reach the H-1 Freeway. Motorists can reach Moanalua Valley or Kaiser Moanalua Medical Center by heading up Ala Napunani Street, or along Moanalua Freeway in the east-bound direction at the Red Hill exit.
The Department of Transportation also said that one east-bound lane of the Moanalua Freeway will be closed from Red Hill to Kalihi Street from midnight Monday to 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, and from 9 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. Tuesday through Friday for concrete median work.
Two boys, ages 15 and 17, were arrested and are facing robbery charges as a result of an incident at a Kalihi store Thursday night.
Police said one of the boys jumped over the store counter, assaulted the cashier and took cash from a money dispenser.
The boys ran away before police arrived, but police identified the pair using the store's surveillance video.
A 42-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of car theft and drug possession in Wai'anae about 4 p.m. Thursday after a police officer became suspicious of the car the man was driving.
The officer ran a check on the car's license plates, learned it had been reported stolen and pulled the man over to arrest him for suspicion of car theft.
A search of the man after his arrest turned up drugs and a drug pipe, police said.
Team gives up search for snake
Army reserves to change patch
Motorcyclist hurt in head-on crash
Tour boat finds body off Lahaina
Freeway lanes to be resurfaced
Two teens arrested in Kalihi robbery
Suspect arrested in auto theft
