“Crime spree” offender Lincoln Kaehu was sentenced in Fifth Circuit Court in Lihu’e Thursday, to a total of 15 years imprisonment in five different cases mostly related to theft and unauthorized entry of motor vehicles. Kaehu’s public defender James Itamura
“Crime spree” offender Lincoln Kaehu was sentenced in Fifth Circuit Court in Lihu’e Thursday, to a total of 15 years imprisonment in five different cases mostly related to theft and unauthorized entry of motor vehicles.
Kaehu’s public defender James Itamura had received a memo that Kaehu, 31, was accepted into Habilitat, an intensive in-patient drug and alcohol treatment program on O’ahu.
“I would like to apologize from the heart for what I did. I should have known that if I would be outside with my kids… I would have done the right thing. But when I was doing drugs and the drinking, I put my kids behind me and the drugs in front of me. I cannot fix the mistakes that’s already been done…I just gotta face what you give me today,” Kaehu said.
Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho referred to Kaehu’s criminal record, which goes back to childhood, and his apparent inability to reform as further reason for Judge Clifford L. Nakea to sentence him to imprisonment instead of drug/alcohol rehabilitation or probation.
Kaehu pleaded guilty in a plea agreement from the prosecutor’s office to numerous counts of theft, unauthorized entry of a motor vehicle, one count of possession of drug paraphernalia and one count of stealing a vehicle.
Kaua’i Police Department Lt. Roy Asher, who lead the investigations last year, was in court for Kaehu’s sentencing.
Kaehu’s alleged partner-in-crime, Shayleen Louis-Coyamin, 23, agreed to a plea agreement in 12 cases related to a six-month “crime spree” in which she, Kaehu, and several other people broke into vehicles and stole vehicles, stole items from vehicles, stole personal checks and used stolen checks to buy surf wear.
The “package deal” reduced a total of 53 felony charges down to 27. She could be sentenced to 270 years imprisonment, as each five-year sentence would be doubled because she’s found guilty of more than one at a time.
Some of the charges included stealing two boxes of personal checks from a mailbox and later forging the checks to buy backpacks, sunglasses and surfwear at shops like Nukumoi Surf Company, Miura Store, Sunglass Hut and Kauai Surf Company.
Another part of the crime wave included breaking into visitor’s rental cars at Donkey Beach and Lydgate, and using a stolen credit card to purchase items at Wal-Mart. Thrifty Rent A Car and National Rent A Car both reported vehicles stolen; but because the cars’ license plates were switched, police had a hard time tracking them down.
Shayleen Louis-Coyamin will be sentenced next Jan. 30.
Freedom Harmony, accused of criminal trespassing, attempted unauthorized entry of a motor vehicle, terroristic threatening, resisting arrest and theft in several separate cases, was found not guilty in a jury-waived trial, presided over by Judge Clifford Nakea.
Public defender James Itamura, submitted reports from three different doctors who found that Harmony suffers from impairment to cognitive capacity. Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho submitted a police report from five police incidents. He was found not guilty by reason of substantial impairment to cognitive and volitional decision-making.
Among the incidents, Harmony was arrested after passing an undercover vehicle on the Kipu bypass lane, then when stopped by officers, called himself “the king of Koloa” and threatened to kill them.
Harmony’s father, Zacheriah Branch Harmony, addressed the court and told of a head injury at the age of 8 months that caused “frontal disinhibition syndrome,” a disorder that has also affected him with bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder.
Harmony’s father said he wants his son to receive real treatment more than anything, and that he needs supervision to succeed in making a life for himself.
Throughout his life he has received help through the state Department of Health, Department of Education, and the Kauai Community Mental Health Center, he said.
Harmony was granted conditional release and must stay under the supervision of adult probation and Kauai Community Mental Health Center, and take any prescribed medications. He was to be released last week.
