Updated at 7:05 p.m., Thursday, October 25, 2007
Probation for driver in '05 Kaneohe pedestrian death
Advertiser Staff
Circuit Judge Michael Wilson yesterday denied Joseph M.K. Silva's deferred acceptance of no-contest plea and sentenced the 28-year-old Kane'ohe man to one-year probation for misdemeanor third-degree negligent homicide in the December 2005 death of pedestrian William Kobashigawa.Silva will serve no jail time but must maintain employment, stay out of trouble with the law, and not contact Kobashigawa family members. A review hearing is scheduled in August 2008 on Silva's case.
Silva was driving a 1999 Ford pickup truck on Dec. 22, 2005, that struck Kobashigawa, 89, as he was crossing Kamehameha Highway in a crosswalk near Star Market in Kane'ohe. The accident occurred at 5:45 a.m.
Silva entered a not-guilty plea and requested a jury trial on April 13, 2007. He was arraigned in Circuit Court 10 days later. Trial was scheduled to begin July 23 but the case was continued to July 31 at which time Silva changed his plea to deferred acceptance of no contest.
Negligent homicide cases on O'ahu typically take a year to 18 months to get to court.
