HONOLULU (Eagle News) – Two Native Hawaiian men from the island of Maui were sentenced at the U.S. District Court of Hawaii last week for their racially-motivated attack on C.K., a caucasian man who was attempting to move into their North Maui neighborhood of Kahakuloa.
Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi, 33, was sentenced to 78 months in prison while Levi Aki Jr., 33, would serve 50 months behind bars.
On February 13, 2014, when C.K. was unpacking his belongings with an elderly relative, the two defendants, who had never met C.K. before, stormed onto his property and demanded that he pack his things and leave, while threatening him if he did not comply.
When C.K. replied that he owned the house, Alo-Kaonohi dragged his index finger along C.K.’s jaw and made expletive comments about C.K.’s skin color. Aki then picked up a roofing shovel and handed it to Alo-Kaonohi, who struck C.K. in the head with it, opening up a bloody wound on the back. Later on, after C.K. had already begun packing up his possessions, the defendants attacked him a second time.
During that attack, Aki head-butted C.K. and struck him in the face with the shovel a second time, giving C.K. a concussion and causing him to lose consciousness. When C.K. came back to his senses, the defendants kicked him in the side and broke two of his ribs. During the second attack, one of the defendants said, “no white man is ever going to live here.”
At the sentencing hearing in Downtown Honolulu, the government revealed evidence that, just months after his unprovoked attack on C.K., Alo-Kaonohi committed a similar unprovoked attack on a white skinned-man at a social establishment in Wailuku in East Maui.
“The defendants in this case nearly killed a man because they believed he did not belong in their neighborhood because of the color of his skin,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The law protects everyone in this country from racially motivated violence, and these sentences send a strong message that such violence will not be tolerated.”
“No one should suffer the violence, cover up, and injustice the defendants wrought in this case,” said U.S. Attorney Clare E. Connors for the District of Hawaii. “All persons have a right to freedom from violence motivated by racial hatred, and the Department [of Justice] is committed to ensuring that right is protected in a court of law.”
The Honolulu Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted the investigation.
(Alfred Acenas, Hawaii Pacific Bureau, Eagle News Service)