Serial bus thief sentenced to 5 years in prison

HILO — A Hilo man who stole two Hele-On buses from the former Mass Transit base yard in Hilo almost a year ago was sentenced Wednesday, on his 22nd birthday, to five years in prison.

Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura told Kawelo Nakamura, who’s not related to the judge, the prison sentence is necessary for the protection of the public.

Kawelo Nakamura pleaded no contest May 14 to first-degree theft, unauthorized control of a stolen vehicle, first- and fourth-degree criminal property damage and second-degree reckless endangering. First-degree theft is a Class B felony punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment, but the plea deal allowed him to receive a reduced sentence under the state’s young adult defendant statute.

He’ll also receive credit for the time he already spent behind bars.

Nakamura stole the first bus Aug. 5, 2017, and sideswiped a car on Railroad Avenue near Home Depot in Hilo before later being pulled over by police on Highway 130 near Pahoa and taken into custody.

After District Judge Diana Van De Car granted him supervised release, Nakamura cut the lock on the East Lanikaula Street facility on Aug. 27, 2017, swiped a 42-passenger bus, barreled through a closed gate and took a joyride up the Hamakua Coast and on Queen Kaahumanu Highway in West Hawaii.

Officers pursued Nakamura the following morning on Hilo Bayfront Highway, but curtailed the chase in the interest of safety after one officer reportedly was forced off the road.

Deputy Prosecutor Rick Damerville argued for the prison term.

“When you steal a bus or a tank and you take it out on the highway, and you’re not qualified to operate it, you’re not a good candidate for probation. And then, when you do it a second time, when you’re out (awaiting trial) on the first one, it sort of just tells the state that prison is appropriate,” Damerville told the judge.

Deputy Public Defender Zachary Wingert argued Nakamura, who’s been in Hawaii Community Correctional Center almost a year, should receive probation to pursue “treatment for his addiction and mental health issues” and “give him a chance to turn his life around.”

“Approaching a year is quite a long time in jail. It’s a sufficient amount of time for Mr. Nakamura to have thought and reflected on his life and where he’s going to go with it from here,” Wingert said. “He turns 22 years old today, 21 years old at the time (with) no real prior record. And he’s being sentenced for basically property offenses. I don’t think it would be appropriate for him to go to prison at this point. … It’s not going to make him a nicer person. … It’s not going to be positive for the community either. He’s going to get out, eventually.”

Given the opportunity to speak, Kawelo Nakamura apologized “from the sincerity of my heart.” He added that if granted probation, he would seek treatment for drug addiction and mental health issues.

“Incarceration is not something I look forward to for the rest of my life,” he said, emotionally, his voice breaking. “If I get four years probation, and I complete it with a (conviction expungement), I plan to become either a corrections or police officer and stop the crime.

“One year ago, I was young and didn’t know what I was doing. Being in jail has taught me a lot. It’s taught me to be a more respective person and more responsible person and take things that I’ve done more personally.”

During sentencing, Judge Nakamura noted the sideswiped car and the police vehicle he ran off the road, telling Kawelo Nakamura he posed a “pretty significant danger to the public and to the police.”

“You drove in such a manner as to make the people in the other vehicle fearful of death and/or bodily injury,” the judge said.

The judge also ordered Nakamura to pay $17,651.43 in restitution to the county for damage to the buses and base yard property.

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.