WAILUKU — A Kula man has been found guilty of a felony for illegally reaching into a car at a stoplight to punch another motorist in what a deputy prosecutor called a case of road rage, the Maui News reported today.

A 2nd Circuit Court jury reached verdicts after deliberating for about 15 minutes Monday afternoon, convicting 52-year-old Dean Dempsey of first-degree unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle and third-degree assault. While the assault conviction is a misdemeanor, the act of entering a vehicle to commit a crime is a Class C felony.

The roadway confrontation was reported the afternoon of May 12, 2007, on Hana Highway at Haleakala Highway.

Haiku resident Raymond Michaels, who was the front-seat passenger in a Honda Accord driven by his wife, Jennifer, testified they were taking her 11-year-old daughter to Kahului to buy shoes. They were in the Spreckelsville area along Hana Highway when they noticed a "very agitated" driver in a car tailgating them, Michaels said.

"You could see him yelling and giving hand gestures, flipping us off," Michaels said.

When the Honda stopped for a red light at Haleakala Highway, the other car stopped behind the Honda and the driver got out, walked to the driver's window of the Honda and began yelling at Jennifer Michaels, her husband said.

"I was really shocked," Raymond Michaels said. "I asked him what his problem was. That's when he came over to my side of the car."

Michaels identified Dempsey as the other driver. He stood outside the passenger window and asked Michaels to get out of the car, he said. When he refused, Michaels said Dempsey punched him through the window, hitting Michaels in the right shoulder.

As other cars began honking and the light turned green, Dempsey got back in his car and left, Michaels said.

Testifying in his own defense, Dempsey acknowledged getting out of his car to confront the other driver at the traffic light. But he said he did so after seeing what he said was "pretty erratic" driving by the car ahead of him.

After suddenly pulling in front of his car from a Paia gas station, Dempsey said, the Honda stopped in the middle of the road twice and the driver slammed on the brakes another time, forcing Dempsey to swerve to avoid a collision.

"I was a little concerned that maybe she had been drinking or something like that," Dempsey said.

When he went up to the car and looked in, Dempsey said he didn't see any alcohol containers in the car.

He said he punched Raymond Michaels in self-defense after Michaels first punched Dempsey in the stomach. He went to the passenger window, Dempsey said, because he was afraid Michaels was going to get out of the car. Dempsey said he stood against the door so Michaels couldn't get out.

Cross-examined by Deputy Prosecutor Andrew Martin, Dempsey acknowledged that he hadn't included those details in a statement he wrote for police after being arrested that day.

Even after he was handcuffed and put in the back of a patrol car by a police officer who showed up at Dempsey's house and drove him to the Wailuku Police Station, Dempsey said, "I didn't think it was a big deal.

"I just gave a short version. I wanted to get out of there."

Dempsey was released after posting $6,000 bail.

In closing arguments to jurors Monday, defense attorney David Sereno said the testimony by Jennifer and Raymond Michaels wasn't believable, citing inconsistencies with what they told police that day.

While others may not have acted as Dempsey did, "Dean just did what he had to do," Sereno said.

Martin called Dempsey's testimony "absurd." The deputy prosecutor cited statements of another driver, Melissa Bartlett, who was stopped in the lane next to the Michaels' Honda. She described seeing Raymond Michaels defending himself from Dempsey, Martin said.

"It's not a case about the defendant's valiant effort to protect this community against bad drivers," Martin said. "It certainly isn't a case about the defendant having to protect himself against the 5-foot-7-inch, 130-pound man seat-belted in a car stopped at a red light.

"This case is about anger and rage of the defendant."

Presiding Judge Joseph Cardoza scheduled sentencing for Dempsey on Oct. 21. The misdemeanor assault carries a possible penalty of a year in jail and a maximum $2,000 fine; the felony unlawful entry conviction carries a possible five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

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