"Your crimes were terrible crimes," U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway told murderer Rodney Joseph Jr. yesterday in ordering him to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Joseph, 40, was convicted of killing two members of a rival criminal group in a brazen afternoon shooting more than five years ago in the parking lot of a Windward O'ahu public golf course.

Faletolu Lauti, sister of one of the victims, spoke at yesterday's sentencing hearing.

"We waited five long years, judge, and I thank God that justice has prevailed," she said.

Her brother, Lepo Utu Taliese, was shot in the Pali Golf Course parking lot and ran halfway down the 18th fairway of the golf course before collapsing. Also killed was Romilius Corpuz Jr.

A third victim, Tino Sao, was shot in the face but survived.

Joseph's co-defendant in the federal racketeering trial, Ethan "Malu" Motta, will be sentenced later.

A third man charged in the case, Kevin "Pancho" Gonsalves, had pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 27 1/2 years in prison.

Joseph did not speak at yesterday's hearing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Brady read aloud a letter written last year by Margie Corpuz, widow of Romilius Corpuz and sister of the other victim, Taliese.

Joseph's actions, the letter said, "were cold, callous, cruel and calculating."

The losses of her loved ones, she wrote, had caused her to consider "thoughts of suicide" and to "suffer my own kind of imprisonment."

The killers were motivated by a desire to control protection money collected from illegal gambling games in Hawai'i, according to prosecutors and police.

Shortly before the shootings, members of a group headed by Motta and Joseph had split away and formed their own security detail.

Members of each group attended a Jan. 7, 2004, funeral and agreed to meet later to discuss their differences, according to trial testimony.

But shortly after Motta, Joseph and Gonsalves arrived, they pulled out handguns and shot the unarmed victims.