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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Man, 18, pleads guilty in 2008 home invasion


Advertiser Staff

An 18-year-old man yesterday pleaded guilty to participating in a 2008 Aliamanu home invasion that left a victim permanently paralyzed.

John M. Rasalan pleaded guilty to robbery, kidnapping and burglary in the 2008 case as well as reckless endangerment, terroristic threatening and a firearms offense in a 2009 case.

Terms of a plea agreement Rasalan reached with prosecutors were not disclosed, although deputy prosecuting attorney Scott Bell said Rasalan has agreed to testify against four co-defendants.

Rasalan entered a home on Hulakui Drive in Aliamanu on Aug. 11, 2008, with three others, intending to rob resident Timothy Lapitan, according to prosecutors.

They allegedly held him, his mother and another woman at gunpoint and shot Lapitan in the abdomen when he resisted, according to court papers.

Rasalan will be sentenced in October.