Nawiliwili ATM thief get 10 years

LIHUE — The second co-defendant of the Nawiliwili ATM theft case was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday in 5th Circuit Court.

Joseph Kaumualii Rapozo III, 27, Anahola, will serve 10 years for the first-degree theft of an automatic teller machine at Anchor Cove Shopping Center during the early morning hours of Sept. 26, 2011. He and a co-defendant reportedly secured the ATM to a vehicle and pulled the machine from its concrete foundation.

Chief Judge Randal Valenciano sentenced Rapozo after he changed his plea to no contest on the first-degree theft charge.  A second-degree theft and second-degree criminal property damage were dismissed.

Following sentencing in Valenciano’s court, Rapozo went next door to be re-sentenced in a 2006 firearms case.

The new theft charges resulted in a revocation of his probation in the matter.

Judge Kathleen Watanabe re-sentenced Rapozo to a five-year prison term to run concurrent with the ATM and federal sentencings.

Watanabe said she hoped that Rapozo’s statement to the court was sincere and that he planned to make the changes to turn his life around for his family, if not for himself.

“Do good time,” she said. “You are a young man and you will still be a young man when you get out.”

The change of plea and sentencing were delayed while Rapozo sat in federal detention in Honolulu awaiting sentencing on felony possession of firearms, possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. He agreed to a federal plea deal on Jan 24.

U.S. District Court in Honolulu Judge Leslie Kobayashi sentenced Rapozo to 10 years in prison on May 16.

The co-defendant in the case, Alvin Hoichi Isobe, 49, of Kapa‘a, entered a guilty plea on July 31, 2012 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Nov. 2, 2012

Judge Valenciano also sentenced Isobe to a concurrent 5-year term  for a second-degree theft charge stemming from a Feb. 6 incident at Kmart.