A 51-year-old Honomu man who stabbed his housemate to death almost three years ago will go to prison after violating his probation on a manslaughter conviction.
Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara on Tuesday sentenced Daniel Schuster to 20 years in prison. Schuster had been serving a 10-year probation term for the slaying of 30-year old Joshua Trickel on July 22, 2012, at Schuster’s Pua Street home.
Schuster was originally charged with second-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence with the possibility of parole, but made a plea deal with prosecutors at the request of Trickel’s mother, Leslie Peters, and one of Trickel’s sisters.
Two glass pipes and a zipper plastic bag, all containing methamphetamine residue, were found in Schuster’s home by police following the slaying.
Schuster served almost 15 months in jail awaiting trial. He was released on Sept. 6, 2013, but was re-arrested in August 2014 after Honolulu prosecutors filed a complaint charging him with numerous counts of theft, forgery and identity theft.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison Feb. 23 by Honolulu Circuit Judge Rom Trader after pleading guilty to two counts each of identity theft and second-degree theft, three counts of forgery and a single attempted second-degree theft charge.
Schuster admitted he had violated his probation, and his convictions for manslaughter and the theft-related charges will run concurrently.
It wasn’t the first time Schuster, a registered nurse, had violated his probation.
On Feb. 23, 2014, Hara sentenced Schuster to four days in jail, stayed, and placed him on the more intensive and closely supervised HOPE probation program after Schuster admitted using methamphetamine while on probation.
Court records indicate in March 2014, Schuster admitted to not showing up for a drug test, as ordered, and was sentenced to 21 days in jail.
Schuster also failed to report for a drug test on May 6 and failed to obtain anger management assessment as ordered, prosecutors said in September.
Email John Burnett at jburnett @hawaiitribune-herald.com.