Gerald D. Pa'akaula pleaded guilty to two assault charges and apologized to the victims, Andrew and Dawn Dussell.

Circuit Judge Steven Alm deplored racial overtones to the parking lot altercation, in which Pa'akaula and his minor son more than once used the phrase "f..... haole."

The violence began after a vehicle driven by the Dussells accidentally struck Pa'akaula's Chevrolet.

Pa'akaula, a truck driver, was in an ice cream shop at the time and, when he emerged, he found his son and wife involved in a physical altercation with the Dussells.

He hit each of them twice, breaking Dawn Dussell's nose and knocking her unconscious. Andrew Dussell, who was also kicked by the younger Pa'akaula, suffered facial fractures and a concussion.

The son, a juvenile, is serving a one-year sentence at the Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility.

Pa'akaula wrote a letter of apology to the Dussells, who did not appear at today's court hearing.

"They want to move on with their lives," Deputy Prosecutor Franklin Pacarro Jr. said. "They want to to stay here, they want to live here."

Alm noted that Pa'akaula received dozens of letters of support from friends, neighbors, co-workers and family members who described him as a humble, hard-working family man.

"There is a violent side," noted Alm.

"You could have stopped this," Alm said of the altercation.

"We still have our problems with race," Alm said of Hawai'i society.

"There's always a fragile, delicate balance and what happened that day did not help," said the judge.

Todd Eddins, the defendant's lawyer, said Pa'akaula "sincerely and deeply regrets what happened."