HONOLULU — A man who escaped the Kauai Community Correctional Center and went on a crime spree in 2016 was sentenced Tuesday to 188 months, just over 15 years, imprisonment for robbing both a bank and a pharmacy on Kauai.
As part of his sentence, Walter Mills, 45, must pay $630 in restitution, and serve three years of supervised release following his incarceration.
According to court documents, on Nov. 3, 2016, Mills escaped from KCCC.
The next day, he went on a one-day crime spree beginning at First Hawaiian Bank in Lihue, where he handed the bank teller a demand note.
“This is a robbery I have a gun count all the money in the drawer no die pack or mark money,” it read.
He received $480 in cash. He then used the cash at Kmart to purchase a BB gun.
Next, Mills committed a series of carjackings — brandishing the BB gun and stealing vehicles, regardless if the driver was still inside, said the press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
During one of the carjackings of an occupied vehicle, Mills demanded the owner to drive him to a pharmacy in Koloa. Once he entered the pharmacy, Mills held the BB gun in the air and demanded Oxycontin pills. He received the pills, fled, and continued on his carjacking spree. Mills was arrested outside Kokee Lodge in his car later that day.
“I have to look at the safety of the community,” said U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor. “The community is not safe when you are out and about.”
In 2015, Mills was arrested on theft charges stemming from two separate incidents.
On Aug. 9, 2015, Mills was accused of stealing a laptop from Walmart.
Then, on Sept. 19, police said he robbed Kapaa Pharmacy, wearing a Halloween mask armed with a Colt semiautomatic BB gun. According to court records, Mills demanded Oxycontin, oxycodone, morphine and methadone — in total about 1,900 pills.
Mills was arrested four days later after a minor car wreck. After obtaining a search warrant, officers with the Kauai Police Department found a a Colt BB gun, a plastic mask and several Oxycontin pills.
Mills was sentenced in July to about six years in federal prison for the robbery, three years of supervised release with conditions including drug testing.
He was sentenced to five years in prison in September, stemming from the Walmart incident. He will serve sentences concurrently.
$630 in restitution…What about all the manpower and equipment that was used to recapture this guy? Tax payers footing the bill again cause the State “Public Safety” guys messed up again?
The state should foot the bill for all the overtime, Helicopter, etc that had to be used to get this guy back behind bars.
Restitution of $630 -$480 cash from the bank robbery leaves $150. Is that really the value of 1,900 morphine and oxy pills?? Seems low to me! And isn’t it misleading to headline this ‘Man gets 15 years for robbery’ when his longest sentence is 6 years? His sentences are to be served concurrently so it is 6 not 15 years in prison. And no mention is made of sentences for car-jacking either. Surprised he got off so easy… Mainland justice would have locked this menace-to-society up for a lot longer.