Order won’t shorten jail time

Kaua`i County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Soong said Tuesday that a state Supreme Court order to resentence two convicted Kaua`i murderers won’t get the duo out of jail early.

Last Friday, the court upheld the convictions of Mitchell Peralto and Monica Alves Peralto for kidnapping. They were sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.

But the state’s highest court sent an enhanced sentence for second-degree murder in the same crime back to Kaua`i for possible resentencing.

In 1998, the Fifth Circuit Court, under Judge George Masuoka, granted the prosecution’s request for an enhanced sentence. The more severe sentence was based on the fact that the 1997 kidnapping and murder of Kimberly Washington-Cohen was “cruel and heinous.”

But the Supreme Court said the sentencing should have been held separately from the trial that determined guilt.

Soong, who prosecuted the case, said that even if the county went back to do another sentencing hearing and lost the enhancement, the pair wouldn’t be getting out of prison anytime soon.

“Those two life sentences (for each defendant) run consecutively, and they have to serve one before the other. The parole eligibility on the first one was set at 75 years” by the state Parole Board, Soong explained.

“In a practical sense, I don’t know if (resentencing) would make any difference,” he said. The defendants can request a reduction of sentence after 25 years on the first kidnapping charge, “but they will have to serve the second (life) sentence.”

The couple were convicted in January of 1998. The victim was Monica Alves Peralto’s cousin.

The Peraltos had accused her of stealing from them.

There was testimony at the trial that the two killers beat, bound and gagged and eventually buried the victim in a shallow grave. Her corpse was discovered the following day.

Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net