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Wailuku man gets one year in jail for burglary

In separate case, man sentenced for assault at party

WAILUKU — A one-year jail term was ordered for a man who jumped off a balcony to try to escape when a resident returned home during a burglary at a Wailea home.

Cole Santiago, 26, of Wailuku was injured and hospitalized when he landed on a rock wall on the lawn 15 feet below.

Some of the more than $87,000 in jewelry stolen from the home was found near Santiago and on him, said Deputy Prosecutor Annalisa Bernard Lee.

“People call that karma. Some people call that just desserts,” said 2nd Circuit Judge Rhonda Loo, who sentenced Santiago on Oct. 27.

“What goes around comes around,” she told Santiago. “I hope you come around.”

Santiago was ordered to pay $15,881 in restitution and to perform 200 hours of community service as part of four years’ probation.

He had pleaded no contest to first-degree burglary and first-degree theft.

“I know I did wrong,” Santiago said in court. “I’d like to make a change for the better.”

Defense attorney Wendy Hudson said that Santiago may not have realized how severe his methamphetamine addiction was.

“He does recognize that he has anger issues, and he wants to be the best dad he can be,” she said. “He does admit he was in the wrong place, wrong time, wrong friends.”

Bernard Lee said that Santiago and co-defendant James Wiles went to the house with a 24-year-old woman who was supposed to be their getaway driver April 19.

“This was very planned,” Bernard Lee said. “This is not the wrong place, the wrong time and the wrong friends.”

When the resident returned home, she was surprised to find her garage door wasn’t working, Bernard Lee said. When she went into the house, the lights weren’t working, then she heard footsteps on the second floor and realized her home was being burglarized, Bernard Lee said.

“She runs out in fear and calls police,” Bernard Lee said.

Shortly before the burglary, Wiles had been at the home while working for a plumbing company the woman had called, Loo said.

“I don’t think she was expecting to be drained,” Loo said.

She said that Santiago and Wiles went back to the home in the middle of the night, cut off the electricity and used a ladder to enter a bedroom, where they rummaged through drawers.

A month earlier, Santiago had completed five years’ probation for a burglary charge, Loo noted.

Santiago was ordered not to consume alcohol or illegal drugs and to write a letter apologizing to the resident.

Charges are pending against Wiles, 24, of Kihei.

In another sentencing Oct. 17, a 40-year-old Kahului man was ordered to perform 200 hours of community service as part of four years’ probation for reaching into a vehicle to punch another man.

Douglas Lizada was given credit for two days he previously spent in jail.

He said that the other man, who is a friend of Lizada’s ex-wife, was “drunk and acting dumb” at a birthday party for Lizada’s daughter April 22.

“That’s when I went to the corner and waited for him,” Lizada said.

Loo asked Lizada why he did that.

“This is your daughter’s 16th birthday party, sweet 16. It turned into a sour 16th,” Loo said. “Dad got arrested that night.”

Lizada had pleaded no contest to first-degree unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle, third-degree assault and violating an order for protection.

His former wife had obtained the court order.

“She doesn’t want to see him in jail. She wants him to get help,” Bernard Lee said. “There has been a long ongoing struggle with drugs and jealousy.”

Lizada, who said that he had completed anger management classes twice before, again was ordered to complete domestic violence intervention classes.

“You’re not dealing with the anger,” Loo told Lizada. “You’re getting angrier.”

Lizada was ordered to pay a $150 fine and write letters apologizing to his ex-wife and the man who was assaulted.

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.

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