A Kapa‘a man was sentenced to 18 months in prison yesterday after pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree sexual assault earlier this year, according to deputy prosecuting attorney Lila Kanae. Robert Willis, 33, had originally been charged with three
A Kapa‘a man was sentenced to 18 months in prison yesterday after pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree sexual assault earlier this year, according to deputy prosecuting attorney Lila Kanae.
Robert Willis, 33, had originally been charged with three counts of first-degree sexual assault, a Class A felony punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment for each count, in September 2007.
Under the terms of his January plea agreement, Counts 1 and 2 were amended to second-degree sexual assault, a Class B felony punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment for each count, and the third count was dropped outright.
Kanae said that the nature of the offense was not what the Hawai‘i Revised Statutes describe as “sexual penetration by compulsion,” commonly described as “rape,” but instead sexual contact with a minor who was under the age of 16.
The 18-month prison term will be reduced by some 50 days that Willis had already spent behind bars while awaiting his sentence, Kanae said.
Sentencing had been postponed three times since April as Willis tried to arrange funding for a psychosexual evaluation, according to court records.
In addition to the jail time, Willis was sentenced to five years probation, with special terms in place for the sexual nature of his crimes. One of those terms is participation in a sex offender treatment program.
Furthermore, Willis will not be allowed to share a residence with any juveniles or children without approval from a probation officer and a therapist.
He will not be permitted to possess “pornographic, sexually oriented or sexually stimulating” material relevant to his “deviant behavior pattern,” according to court records.
