Sentencing has been delayed for a retired Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective who admitted intentionally beating his wife to death in their Ka‘u home in 2006.
Daniel DeJarnette Jr., 60, will now be sentenced at 10 a.m. May 23 by 3rd Circuit Court Chief Judge Ronald Ibarra in Kealakekua. He faces up to 20 years in prison with the possibility of parole when he’s sentenced for manslaughter while under extreme or emotional distress.
DeJarnette’s sentencing was scheduled for Tuesday, however, problems within the Public Defender’s office resulted in the delay.
Deputy Public Defender Betsy Steulke requested the continuance because her office did not have the time to properly review DeJarnette’s presentencing investigation report because of staffing issues while she was on vacation. She added that upon returning to the office on Monday she reviewed the report and found information, such as financial data, was not included.
Though Ibarra expressed concern more than once during the hearing — noting the case has moved slowly from the onset and that the Public Defender’s office was notified at the time of DeJarnette’s March 15 change of plea hearing that the report was due May 7 — he granted the request.
“Certainly the court has expressed numerous times the concerns of the progress of this case,” said Ibarra. “But, your client should not be prejudiced because of your office’s administrative problem.”
Deputy Prosecutor Linda Walton, during the hearing, said she was not “inclined to see it continued again.” Post-hearing, she said her office would be ready for sentencing on May 23.
Police found 56-year-old Yu DeJarnette’s body on the side of an embankment near the couple’s Ocean View home on Nov. 12, 2006. An autopsy found she died of severe head injuries. Daniel DeJarnette, who told police that his wife had apparently fallen down the embankment, was arrested shortly thereafter on suspicion of murder, but was released from custody without being charged two days later because of insufficient evidence.
DeJarnette, who moved to the Big Island after retiring from the LAPD in 2003, was indicted in May 2012 on second-degree murder by a Kona grand jury. In a plea deal that reduced the murder charge to manslaughter, DeJarnette admitted he hit his wife twice in the head with an automobile jack stand after she slapped him twice.
