A former prison guard was acquitted of manslaughter yesterday and convicted of a lesser misdemeanor charge of injuring a Halawa Correctional Facility inmate who died there in 1998.

Brian Freitas was accused of slamming Antonio Revera's head at least twice on a concrete slab, but Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario acquitted him of manslaughter. He ruled the testimony by prosecution witnesses was inconsistent and the evidence did not support the charge that Freitas recklessly killed the prisoner.

The judge also rejected a felony assault charge, but found Freitas guilty of third-degree assault of inflicting injuries on the inmate.

The conviction carries a maximum one-year jail term. Manslaughter carries a maximum 20-year term.

Freitas' sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 9.

Revera, 26, was serving a 10-year prison term for kidnapping and attempted sexual assault. The state reached a $250,000 settlement with Revera's family over the death in 2001.

Freitas, 37, was one of several guards who restrained Revera after he became unruly while being transferred out of the prison's medical unit in April 1998. Freitas admitted on the witness stand that he held Revera's head. He said he wanted to prevent him from hurting others, but Freitas denied slamming Revera's head.

Deputy Public Defender Walter Rodby had asked Freitas be acquitted of all charges.

Rodby said his client is upset he was convicted. "He feels that he's a prison guard ensuring the public's safety; that the decedent was a dangerous person, and he was acting to protect his fellow (guards) from further injury," Rodby said.

Rodby said he will ask for probation.

City Deputy Prosecutor Russell Uehara, who did not handle the trial, said he will ask for the one-year jail term "because somebody died."

Freitas' first trial ended with a hung jury in 2003. For the retrial, the defense and prosecution agreed Del Rosario could issue the ruling after reviewing the transcript of the first trial.