A judge on Wednesday denied a 42-year-old Hilo man’s request to be released from custody under court supervision without monetary bail.
Corey Napoleon is accused of shooting his estranged wife last year.
Hilo Circuit Judge Henry Nakamoto set Napoleon’s trial for 8:30 a.m. Sept. 14.
Napoleon, who is morbidly obese and bedridden, is charged with attempted second-degree murder, first-degree reckless endangering, and the use of a firearm in a commission of a separate felony. Nakamoto also maintained Napoleon’s bail at $250,000.
Napoleon is incarcerated in the medical unit of Halawa Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in Aiea, Oahu. His motion for supervised release from custody cites numerous health issues he claims the prison’s medical unit is unequipped to handle. A supplemental memorandum to that motion claims Napoleon is especially vulnerable to COVID-19 because of those health issues.
The state Supreme Court has ordered that inmate populations in Hawaii’s historically overcrowded correctional facilities be reduced to the facilities’ population capacities as originally designed to prevent a possible coronavirus outbreak.
According to court documents, Napoleon shot and critically injured 36-year-old Miya Napoleon, also known as Miya Sagucio, on March 28, 2019. She told police Corey Napoleon was sitting at the edge of the bed and fired two rounds from a black revolver.
One shot missed; the other hit her in the right side of the lower back.
The alleged victim in the reckless endangering charge is the couple’s then-15-year-old son who, according to documents, told police that after the shots were fired, he wrestled the firearm away from his father, and the gun again went off during the struggle. Neither the teen nor Corey Napoleon was hit by that shot.
A .38-caliber revolver was recovered at the scene.
Miya Napoleon has since recovered from the shooting and has filed for divorce from her husband, according to court records. That case is pending.
Corey Napoleon was excused from Wednesday’s hearing, but on Jan. 24, he testified from an Oahu courtroom via videoconference that a “floor boy” — essentially an orderly in the special needs facility — sexually assaulted him. Napoleon claimed the inmate was charged with a criminal offense.
Napoleon said he weighs 450 pounds, can’t walk because of what he described as “substantial nerve damage” to his left foot and leg which has caused the limb to atrophy, and has a bedsore issue.
He said he developed MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant infection, at the prison medical unit.
“It’s a life-threatening wound,” Napoleon said. He claims the doctor at the facility has never examined the bedsore, but Napoleon is taken every couple of weeks to The Queen’s Medical Center.
Napoleon, who also has had a tracheotomy and breathes through a tube, said he suffers from sleep apnea and does not have his BIPAP, a nighttime breathing machine.
Among other complaints Napoleon aired in the hour-plus January hearing is that his court-appointed lawyer, Jeremy Butterfield, cannot call him at the facility, and some guards don’t allow him to call his lawyer.
In denying Napoleon’s motion, Nakamoto said he “understands the situation of Mr. Napoleon.”
“I understand that there’s health issues regarding certain things that happened to him while in custody,” the judge said.
Nakamoto added he doesn’t think there have been any major changes since Napoleon’s bail was set “regarding the risk of fleeing, risk that he may obstruct justice and intimidate witnesses, risk to himself or the community, (and) risk that he … may engage in illegal activity even though has those health issues.”
Butterfield and Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Hashizaki declined comment after Wednesday’s hearing.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
