Hawai'i Legal News

  State v. Lavoie (HSC August 13, 2025). Marlin Lavoie was charged, tried, and convicted of murder and firearms-related offenses. The circuit court (Hon. Judge Joseph E. Cardoza) sentenced him to life with the possibility of parole and the firearms charges consecutively. Lavoie appealed. The HSC vacated the conviction and remanded the case for a new trial.   On remand, the parties reached a plea agreement. Lavoie pleaded guilty to manslaughter, using a firearm in a separate felony, and being a felon in possession. The parties used the presentence report from the first trial, which included reports on his mental health and social history. Before sentencing, Lavoie’s court-appointed attorney filed a motion to hire an expert to assess him for dangerousness. The assessment would be used to assist him at sentencing and before the parole board. The bill came to $8,767.   The circuit court (Hon. Judge Peter T. Cahill) found the request exorbitant and unnecessary but auth...

  State v. Yuen (HSC August 20, 2024) Background. Charles Tung Ming Yuen was charged with driving under the influence of an intoxicant. The charge arose from a motor vehicle collision that occurred approximately fifty feet from the O’Malley Gate just outside of the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu. Two vehicles were approaching the gate when one of the vehicle rear-ended the one in front of it. Military police came onto the scene and identified Yuen as the driver of the vehicle that cause the collision. They seized him and subjected him to standardized field sobriety tests. Then they held him and called the Honolulu Police Department to report a “possible DUI outside the gate.”   The collision, seizure of Yuen, and their investigation occurred outside of the base within the City and County of Honolulu. The police showed up and took over. They conducted their investigation, saw signs of intoxication, and arrested Yuen.   Yuen’s lawyer, Barry Sooalo, di...

OVERRULED!   State v. Willis (ICA April 30, 2024) Background. Erik Willis was indicted for attempted murder in the second degree. This case goes back to 2020, when a 17-year-old girl was found on a Kahala Beach with stab wounds to her stomach. She survived. The police found surveillance footage showing that before she was found a “fair-skinned man, with dark curly hair, a blue disposable face mask, a clean white t-shirt, tan pants, and dark colored shoes with white striping on the side” was near the area. Footage from a bus showed the man getting on the bus and heading to the Kahala beach he got out off the bus approximately twenty minutes before the woman was found. More footage showed that at around the time the woman was found the man was running from the beach to a sink and appeared to “wash himself off.” At around 4 p.m., the man is seen with a soiled t-shirt sitting on the bus. HPD officer Matthew Motas watched the footage and identified the man as Willis.   ...

  State v. Hewitt (HSC March 15, 2023) Background. Hawai'i County Officer Chandler Nancio and another officer were called to the Kona Community Hospital in the middle of the night to see a possible victim of assault. An unknown man dropped Cyrina Hewitt off at the emergency room. He found Hewitt awake with contusions on her face, her eyes were swollen shut, a laceration was on her ear, and she had a broken breast plate. She was disoriented and “rambling incoherently.” She did not know where she was or why she as in the hospital.   Officer Nancio waited for the nurse to treat her and then asked for her name and birth date. He stayed at her bedside and asked her questions about how she got her injuries. Hewitt at first said she had pink-eye, but then said it was a stye. Then paramedics came by and asked what was going on. The paramedics said that they saw a truck’s taillights sticking out of the bushes on the side of the road.   Sgt. Mekia Rose followed up on the...

  State v. Perry (HSC March 8, 2023) Background. In 2002, Jason Perry was indicted with two counts of murder in the second degree. HRS § 707-701.5 (1993). At his trial in 2003, a co-defendant testified against him. Perry took the stand and testified too. Their testimony centered around count 2 and the shooting of the possible witness to the killing of the decedent in count 1. The co-defendant testified that Perry shot the witness. Perry said it was the co-defendant.   The jury returned a guilty verdict for count 1 and answered a special interrogatory establishing that Perry was both a principal and accomplice in the murder. In count 2, the jury found Perry guilty as an accomplice only. The circuit court—with the Hon. Judge Karen S. Ahn presiding—gave another special interrogatory about whether the prosecution proved that Perry was carrying or using a semi-automatic weapon at the time of the killing in count 2. The jury answered that he had. This fact is needed to impose...