A judge sentenced a 32-year-old Kurtistown man Monday to life in prison with the possibility of parole for his role in the slaying of a 44-year-old Hawaiian Acres man almost two years ago.
Claude Keone Krause pleaded guilty Oct. 22 to second-degree murder for the fatal strangulation of Dante Peter Gilman on Dec. 28, 2012, at Gilman’s home.
In exchange for his murder plea, prosecutors dropped burglary, robbery, theft and three firearms charges.
Under terms of the plea deal, prosecutors will request the Hawaii Paroling Authority set Krause’s minimum prison term at 30 years.
Krause’s 21-year-old cousin, Kawena Krause — who physically choked Gilman to death — was sentenced Dec. 2 to life with the possibility parole. Under terms of the younger Krause’s plea deal, prosecutors will request the parole board set his minimum prison term at 20 years.
Another individual, described by police as a minor, also was present during the homicide. That person has not been charged.
Deputy Prosecutor Jack Matsukawa said Claude Krause’s motivation for the slaying was “power and control” — as evidenced in a video taken by a home surveillance system Gilman had installed several months earlier.
“Kawena … was fighting with the victim, Dante Gilman, who started to run away,” Matsukawa said. “Out of the bushes, Mr. Claude Krause comes up with a block to the back. He held him at gunpoint and told Kawena Krause to get a hold of him and choke him for over two minutes.”
Ivan Van Leer, Claude Krause’s court-appointed attorney, didn’t dispute Matsukawa’s version of events and requested that Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara follow the plea agreement.
Asked by the judge if he wanted to make a statement, Claude Krause replied, “No, I don’t.”
Before passing sentence, Hara said Krause “traded a life for property.”
“That makes you, in my mind, a very dangerous person,” the judge said.
Gilman’s sister, Katrina Howe, was in the courtroom gallery, but didn’t address the court as she did at Kawena Krause’s sentencing, when she described the Krauses as men who “take sick pleasure in the suffering they cause.”
Claude Krause is a repeat felon who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2001 for sex assault and burglary.
The victim in that crime was the late Mayapple McCullough, a founder of the group Citizens for Justice and a vocal critic of police who helped to bring killers to justice in at least two high profile Big Island murder cases: the Christmas Eve 1992 abduction, rape and murder of Dana Ireland, which resulted in the convictions of Frank Pauline Jr., Albert Ian Schweitzer and Shawn Schweitzer almost a decade later; and the Nov. 27, 1992, murder of Yvonne Mathison, which resulted in the conviction of her police sergeant husband, Kenneth Mathison.
Gilman was reported missing Jan. 10, 2013, and his body was found 12 days later by police along the “Tree Planting Road” off Stainback Highway in Panaewa. He was a one-time competition surfer and the son of the late Peter Gilman, a Honolulu Star-Bulletin reporter in the 1950s and author of the best-selling novel “Diamond Head,” which was made into a 1963 film starring Charlton Heston.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.