Sylvain Pilon, 46, would need to obtain a court order to return to Hawaii while he is on probation for one year, said Wailuku District Judge Douglas Ige.

In sentencing Pilon, the judge said he had to balance fairness for Pilon with the safety of the Hana community.

"This is a proposal that I think works for everyone," Ige said. "Hopefully, we won't have any more problems. And that's what the court wants – some peace in that community."

The judge gave Pilon credit for 169 days he had spent in jail since his arrest Jan. 29.

That morning, Hana resident Ken Yasso noticed the dog named Jacks was missing and followed a trail of blood from his yard to Pilon's property, where the dead dog was hidden under debris.

Questioned by police, Pilon admitted going onto Yasso's property the night before after hearing dogs barking and using a machete to kill the animal. He told police he decided not to kill another dog on the property because there wasn't enough room to swing the machete.

During his trial in May, Pilon testified that he hit the male dog 13 times with the machete before dragging the dead animal to his property and burying it in two tires.

In court Tuesday, Pilon said he had called the Maui Humane Society and police to report excessive barking by his neighbor's dogs without result.

"It's not only the noise that is disturbing me, it's the distress of the animals," Pilon said. "There was a lot of animal cruelty; it was terrible. I could not live with that next to my door. I decided to do something about it."

In a separate court hearing earlier this month, Yasso was convicted on four violations of allowing an animal nuisance for dogs that barked excessively.

But at Pilon's sentencing, Aimee Anderson, director of animal control for the Maui Humane Society, said officers had investigated Pilon's complaints about animal cruelty and determined they were unfounded.

Anderson said the dog-killing by Pilon was the worst she had seen during nearly 20 years of investigating animal cruelty cases.

"The extreme violence that Mr. Pilon has demonstrated is very concerning," Anderson said.

Had a new law creating a felony offense of animal cruelty been in effect at the time, she said, Pilon could have faced more serious punishment for the crime.

Anderson and Deputy Prosecutor Marie Kosegarten said Pilon appeared to have planned what he did.

"His actions on that date, where he butchered this 14-year-old girl's pet dog, just show how cruel, how calculated and how dangerous he really is," Kosegarten said. "In his mind, what he did was justice, and that's frightening."

She had recommended a two-year jail term for Pilon, who was found guilty of violating a temporary restraining order, cruelty to animals and fourth-degree criminal property damage.

In May 2006, a court had granted Yasso a three-year restraining order against Pilon, who was ordered not to harass his neighbor. Yasso had described earlier incidents of Pilon trespassing onto Yasso's property to harass his dog and his daughter.

Deputy Public Defender Shelly Miyashiro asked that Pilon be given credit for the jail time he had already served. She said he was prepared to pay $753 in restitution and planned to leave the state after being released from jail Tuesday.

Earlier this month, Pilon's wife, Bonnie Kerr-Pilon, testified in a case against Yasso, who was found guilty of four counts of animal nuisance for excessive dog barking on four dates in March and August 2006, said Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Goya.

A conviction for the violation requires evidence that a dog was heard barking for 10 minutes continuously or for 20 minutes intermittently.

Yasso was ordered to a pay a $400 fine – the minimum of $100 for each conviction – following the trial before Judge Eric Romanchak.

Ige said he was aware of the excessive dog barking convictions.

"I still can't condone what you did," the judge told Pilon. "It was a totally senseless act."

Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.