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Kidnapping of girlfriend leads to 20-year term

The Maui News

WAILUKU — A Wailuku man was sentenced Tuesday to a 20-year prison term for kidnapping his former girlfriend, who was heard screaming for help as he dragged her upstairs.

Lorrin Ishimine, 33, was found guilty of the charge during a jury trial in March.

He faced the mandatory prison term because the jury also found that the prosecution proved that Ishimine hadn’t released the woman voluntarily.

“There is no discretion,” 2nd Circuit Judge Peter Cahill said in imposing the prison term Tuesday.

He said the Hawaii Paroling Authority would determine how much time Ishimine would have to serve before being eligible for parole.

Ishimine was arrested the afternoon of Aug. 17, 2016, after police were dispatched to a two-story home on Liholiho Street.

Officer Victor Marmolejos Santana was off duty when he saw a car with a loud muffler speeding to the residence. He testified that he saw a man, identified as Ishimine, get out of the driver’s side of the Nissan Altima and go to the passenger door, where he screamed and made threatening gestures toward the woman inside.

Santana said the woman was screaming for help, and he saw the man dragging her up the stairs of the residence.

After other officers arrived, they went upstairs and were met by Ishimine’s sister.

The sister said the man and woman weren’t in the house before officers entered the residence and went to the bedroom where Ishimine stayed. Officer Keola Wilhelm testified he kicked in the bedroom door and saw Ishimine with his hand over the woman’s mouth and his arm around her waist as they sat on the bed.

The woman, who was Ishimine’s girlfriend, Catherine Gonzales, had been subpoenaed but didn’t show up to testify in the trial.

In conversations recorded by police officers, Gonzales said she had been walking away from the Liholiho Street residence to go home that day when Ishimine pulled up in the car and told her to get in so he could drive her home. When she got in, she said Ishimine “started punching me and choking me and told me I wasn’t going to leave,” according to one recording.

She said Ishimine drove her back to the house, pulled her out of the car and dragged her upstairs into the house.

Gonzales told officers that Ishimine choked her to the point where she couldn’t breathe for up to eight seconds, first in the car and later in the living room of the house.

After Ishimine’s sister told him to stop in the living room, Gonzales said Ishimine pulled her into the bedroom, locked the door and again punched her.

The recordings were not played for the jury.

Defense attorney Chris Dunn said Ishimine wasn’t pleased with the jury’s verdict.

“He intends to pursue an appeal,” Dunn said.

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