A federal judge yesterday balked at approving a plea deal reached by the government with convicted murderers Ethan "Malu" Motta and Kevin "Pancho" Gonsalves.

Under the deal, Motta and Gonsalves, convicted of the gunshot murders of two men at Pali Golf Course in January 2004, avoided mandatory terms of life in prison because each man purportedly provided "substantial assistance" to government investigators.

But U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway said the only cooperation the defendants provided was to enter guilty pleas just before the case was scheduled to go to trial in February.

In fact, the plea deals said specifically that Motta and Gonsalves would not cooperate with investigators and would not testify against other defendants, Mollway said.

Without more information about the supposed cooperation the men provided, Mollway said, she could not approve the government's recommended sentences of 27 1/2 years in prison for each defendant.

The plea agreements "are so bare-boned that I cannot say that I have a factual basis for finding that substantial assistance was provided," Mollway told Gonsalves' lawyer, Clifford Hunt.

Hunt tried to argue that Gonsalves assisted the government because his decision to plead guilty in the case induced another defendant, Rodney Joseph Jr., to also enter a guilty plea in the case. Joseph is scheduled to be sentenced next week.

Mollway was unconvinced by that argument, but she allowed the lawyers in the case more time to study the legal issues involved and rescheduled sentencing for July 24.

Meanwhile, one defendant who pleaded guilty to lesser charges in the case, Kai Ming Wang, was sentenced yesterday by Mollway to 27 months in prison — the amount of time he has served since he was first arrested by federal agents in 2006.

Wang admitted running an illegal casino-style gambling operation but was not charged with the more serious violent crimes committed by his co-defendants. An immigrant from China, Wang, 42, has already been ordered deported by U.S. Immigration officials and will be returned to his home country "probably within a few days," his lawyer said yesterday.

Wang immigrated here in the early 1990s, working in the restaurant business and eventually becoming involved in illegal gambling activities, said the lawyer, William Harrison.

Different criminal factions were competing here for control of underground gambling operations, using threats of violence and extortion to collect protection money from game operators, according to files and testimony in the case.

Wang was "physically assaulted" and sought protection by hiring security guards for his game, Harrison said.

One of the guards took Wang to the Big Island to meet with Motta, who promised to protect Wang's operation from the competition, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Brady and earlier court testimony from Wang himself.

Wang's security personnel later broke up into different factions and violence erupted after members of the two groups encountered each other at a Windward funeral on Jan. 7, 2004.

Motta, Gonsalves and Joseph agreed to meet after the funeral with members of the other group, including Lepo Utu Taliese, Tinoimalu Sao and Romilius Corpuz, in the golf course parking lot to discuss their differences.

The meeting ended in gunfire. Taliese, 44, and Corpuz, 40, died of gunshot wounds. Sao, 42, was shot in the head but survived.

Joseph, Motta and Gonsalves have been held without bail since shortly after the shootings. The three originally were charged with murder and other offenses in state court but those charges were dismissed earlier this year.

Mollway yesterday also rejected a request from Motta to be allowed to visit his dying father on the Big Island.

Motta's friends and family members — dozens of whom attended yesterday's hearing — promised to pay the costs of the visit. But Mollway agreed with Brady that such travel would pose too many security risks for U.S. Marshals accompanying the prisoner.