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Jail term ordered for unprovoked bar attack

The Maui News

For an “unprovoked, sustained attack on a complete stranger” in a Wailuku bar, a man will serve a one-year jail term.

Kaulana Alo Kaonohi, 28, of Wailuku also was placed on four years’ probation when he was sentenced June 18.

He had pleaded no contest to second-degree assault for the attack that occurred July 20, 2014, at Steel Horse Saloon on Lower Main Street.

Live music at the bar had ended that night when Alo Kaonohi tapped the 53-year-old victim on the shoulder, and when he turned, Alo Kaonohi delivered a cross-body blow to the left side of the victim’s face, according to a sentencing memorandum by Deputy Prosecutor Justine Hura.

The victim fell onto the bar and Alo Kaonohi immediately began punching the victim, delivering a blow to the back of his head, according to the memorandum. A friend of the victim got up to move away when Alo Kaonohi appeared to punch the friend, who fell to the ground.

Then Alo Kaonohi punched the victim to the ground, mounted him and began “methodically punching” the man, who was struck in the head at least 13 times, according to the memorandum.

“The attack ends, not because the defendant voluntarily stops, but because two men, one of whom is defendant’s friend, pry him with difficulty” from the victim, the memorandum says.

Alo Kaonohi was guided out of the bar by his friend.

The victim suffered a fractured nose, a 4-inch laceration to the back of his head that required five staples, facial contusions, lip lesions, injuries to his hand and right rotator cuff and a probable concussion, according to the memorandum. He sought treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and continues to struggle with short-term memory loss and vision issues.

In court, Alo Kaonohi asked to be placed on probation with no jail.

The prosecution recommended a five-year prison term, noting that Alo Kaonohi’s letter to the court didn’t say “why he launched an utterly unprovoked, sustained attack on a complete stranger.”

The attack was captured by surveillance video.

The prosecution’s memorandum outlined Alo Kaonohi’s prior criminal history, including 2010 convictions for DUI, lack of due care and excessive speeding and 2009 convictions for disorderly conduct and harassment for what appeared to be another bar incident.

In 2016, Alo Kaonohi was ordered to participate in anger management classes as part of a protective order.

Second Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza imposed the sentence, also ordering Alo Kaonohi to pay $643 in restitution and to complete anger management classes.

In another case, a Jan. 7 trial is set in 2nd Circuit Court for Alo Kaonohi and co-defendant Levi Aki Jr. Both men have pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree burglary, first-degree assault, two counts of first-degree terroristic threatening, second-degree theft and first-degree criminal property damage in a Feb. 13, 2014, incident in Kahakuloa village.

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