LIHU‘E — Fifth Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe last month dismissed with prejudice a first-degree sexual assault charge against a Kapa‘a man previously convicted of molestation. Wyatt Godinez, 24, is currently serving a one-year prison term at Kaua‘i Community Correctional Center
LIHU‘E — Fifth Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe last month dismissed with prejudice a first-degree sexual assault charge against a Kapa‘a man previously convicted of molestation.
Wyatt Godinez, 24, is currently serving a one-year prison term at Kaua‘i Community Correctional Center after pleading guilty earlier this year to third-degree sexual assault on a then-15-year-old girl in a May 2006 incident.
Godinez, wearing a white T-shirt and beige pants with leg shackles in court last month, was later accused of sexually assaulting the woman he was dating at the time of the incident, an older sister of the minor victim — a charge that has now been dropped.
In Watanabe’s courtroom at the state courthouse, Godinez’s case was scheduled to go to jury trial when Chris Donahoe, county deputy prosecuting attorney, made a motion to dismiss without prejudice, meaning the state could later bring the same charge against Godinez for the same incident.
John Calma, state deputy public defender, made a motion to dismiss with prejudice, meaning the state could not again bring an action on the same claim. Calma also said his formal request for discovery — for the state to provide relevant documents in the case — was never granted.
Watanabe asked Donahoe if the state was going to bring the charge against Godinez back, and Donahoe answered “no,” so Watanabe dismissed the charge with prejudice.
County Prosecuting Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho said in an e-mail that the state allowed the case to be dismissed due to double jeopardy, a prohibition against being tried twice for the same crime that is guaranteed by the 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Section 701-110 of the Hawai‘i Revised Statutes “bars a new prosecution for an offense under the same statutory provision and based upon the same facts as a former prosecution,” the HRS commentary states.
Asked for further clarification, Iseri-Carvalho in a subsequent e-mail said “the dates of offense were the same day for the two victims and the former prosecutor’s office knew about both incidents thus was required to bring both cases at the same time.”
With Godinez’s third-degree sexual assault conviction arising out of the young age of the victim and the now-dismissed first-degree sexual assault charge arising out of an accusation of “sexual penetration by strong compulsion,” meaning that the cases relied on separate facts, Iseri-Carvalho’s analysis seemingly also relies on another section of the statutes.
HRS Section 701-109 states that “a defendant shall not be subject to separate trials for multiple offenses based on the same conduct or arising from the same episode, if such offenses are known to the appropriate prosecuting officer at the time of the commencement of the first trial.”
Iseri-Carvalho said in a phone interview Monday evening that both offenses were in fact part of the same “episode” and that a former deputy no longer in the prosecutor’s office failed to file the charges properly.
Chino Godinez, father of Wyatt Godinez, said Monday in a telephone interview from his home in Cody, Wyo., that he believes the case was dismissed because there was “no evidence; no leg to stand on.”
He said he was “elated” to hear the news of the dismissal.
Chino Godinez, co-owner with brother Micco Godinez of Kayak Kaua‘i, now runs a horse pack-trip business near Yellowstone National Park, and said during the rare times he had been able to speak to his son on the telephone before the dismissal (Mondays and Thursdays for only about 10 minutes at a time), he worried his son was heading “downhill” in terms of his demeanor and attitude.
Confined at Kaua‘i Community Correctional Center after pleading guilty to one count of sexual assault, Wyatt Godinez is scheduled to be released in February of next year, his father said.
Wyatt Godinez is also scheduled to become a father later this month, his son, Tristan Gabriel Godinez, planned to arrive before the end of September, Chino Godinez said.
If anything good can come from being incarcerated, Wyatt Godinez is pursuing his GED (high-school diploma equivalent), and “he has become a reader,” his father said, authoring well-written letters with correct punctuation.
• Paul C. Curtis, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com.
