HomeMy WebLinkAboutNR083117Juryreturnsguiltyverdictinstolencarcase
C OU NT Y O F KAU A‘I
BERNARD P. CARVALHO JR.
Mayor
WALLACE G. REZENTES JR.
Managing Director
OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTING ATTORNEY
News Release
For Immediate Release: August 31, 2017
JUSTIN KOLLAR, PROSECUTING ATTORNEY
Tel (808) 241-1888
Fax (808) 241-1758
Jury returns guilty verdict in stolen car case
LĪHU‘E – Stephen Kaliko Makanani, age 32 of Kapa‘a, was found guilty today by a Fifth
Circuit jury, of two felony charges relating to the theft of a vehicle from the parking lot behind the
Dragon Building in Kapa‘a, in October 2016.
The jury returned its verdict following a three-day jury trial presided over by Fifth Circuit
Chief Judge Randal G.B. Valenciano. The jury found Makanani guilty of Unauthorized Control of
a Propelled Vehicle and Unauthorized Entry into a Motor Vehicle in the First Degree, both class
C felonies.
Testimony during the trial revealed that Makanani stole the vehicle from the parking lot in
the early morning of October 28, 2016 and was seen by the owner returning it nearly five hours
later. The owner of the vehicle confronted Makanani and photographed him exiting the vehicle,
but Makanani escaped and was apprehended several weeks later by the Kaua‘i Police
Department after a warrant for his arrest was obtained.
Makanani’s prior criminal history includes eight felony convictions from four different
cases, including convictions for Burglary, Illegal Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Theft of
Credit Card, Unauthorized Control of Propelled Vehicle, and Unauthorized Possession of
Confidential Personal Information. Makanani’s parole in those cases expired less than three
months before the charges in this case arose.
In this case, Makanani was charged and prosecuted as a persistent and multiple offender
by the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney’s Career Criminal Unit. The jury declined to make a
finding that would double the possible prison sentence from 10 to 20 years. Deputy Prosecuting
Attorney Sean Van Demark prosecuted the case for the State of Hawai‘i.
“Career criminals like Stephen Makanani make our community less safe,” stated
Prosecuting Attorney Justin F. Kollar. “People on Kaua‘i work hard to pay their bills, and the
disregard shown for the property of others by people like the defendant simply cannot be
accepted in our community.”
Makanani will be sentenced on November 11, 2017.
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