KEALAKEKUA — The man accused of a vigilante killing last year in Kailua-Kona told a judge Monday he didn’t mean to cause the victim’s death.
Originally charged with second-degree murder, Gafatasi Napoleon, 30, of Kailua-Kona, pleaded guilty to manslaughter before 3rd Circuit Chief Judge Ronald Ibarra for the death of Alanaokala Solomon Covington.
Napoleon is accused of shooting Covington, 36, with a shotgun on Oct. 14 near a homeless camp at the intersection of Queen Kaahumanu Highway and Henry Street.
Ibarra asked the defendant to describe what happened the day Covington died.
Napoleon said he loaded shotgun cartridges with rock salt and shot Covington in the chest from about 6 to 8 feet away.
“I expected it to just sting,” Napoleon said. “I didn’t think it’d go through.”
When Ibarra asked him why he did it, Napoleon said he heard a rumor Covington had been raping women.
“He had gotten a little too close to my girlfriend I had at the time,” he said.
Witness Rex Jensen testified in an October hearing that it wasn’t their intent to kill Covington. Their plan was to assault him and possibly send him to the hospital.
“I knew we were going to beat the (expletive) out of somebody,” Jensen testified Oct. 26, adding that Napoleon did not seem upset after the incident. “He didn’t panic, he didn’t freak out. But neither did I.”
Napoleon seemed to feel justified after the shooting, Jensen said.
Napoleon allegedly had Jensen help him remove the body on Oct. 16 from where it had been laying. Covington’s body was buried under lava rock and dry cement near mile maker 27 of Highway 190, also known as Mamalahoa Highway, in North Kona.
Napoleon was arrested a week after the killing at the scene of a detailed graffiti sketch on a street in the O‘oma Plantation subdivision. The work showed a man who appeared to be a shackled prisoner with one foot on top of a skull, on which the word “rapist” was written in red letters.
“Sometimes a man has to take action to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves,” text on the prisoner’s chest read.
Napoleon was facing several other charges, which will be dismissed without prejudice, in accordance with the plea agreement.
A charge of manslaughter carries by statute an indeterminate 20-year prison sentence as a Class A Felony, according to Deputy Prosecutor Mark Disher.
Though charges in this case involved the use of a firearm, which carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of up to 10 years, Disher said, the plea agreement included that the state may argue up to eight years of a mandatory minimum sentence to be imposed by the court and the defendant may argue no less than a six-year mandatory minimum sentence to be imposed.
The Hawaii Paroling Authority will later determine Napoleon’s minimum prison sentence. However, whatever mandatory minimum sentence ordered by the court must be served.
Napoleon is also facing a restitution fee of approximately $1,450 to the Covington family for funeral expenses.
As Napoleon was being led from the courtroom he turned, gave a smile to family and said, “love you family.”
Napoleon’s family declined to comment after the hearing.
He is set to be sentenced May 2 at 8 a.m.