WAILUKU - Because of his age and health, a 74-year-old man with a 50-year-long criminal record was sentenced Friday to 30 days in jail rather than the five years in prison that normally would apply to a defendant with his history.
The sentence for Dwain Pattillo followed the terms of a plea agreement in which Pattillo pleaded no contest to unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle based on his arrest on Jan. 15 by police officers who had been pursuing the stolen vehicle.
"Looking at his history, Mr. Pattillo is actually the closest thing we have seen to a career criminal in this courtroom in years," said 2nd Circuit Judge Joel August. "It is truly remarkable. A lot of people don't make it to 74. Those who do don't usually make it to 2:45 in the morning with a bunch of younger people in a stolen truck before jumping out and hiding.
"If nothing else, Mr. Pattillo is persistent."
Pattillo was placed on five years' probation and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service after he is released from jail.
"Normally, with his record for this type of crime, we would be asking for prison," Deputy Prosecutor Carson Tani said. "But that doesn't seem like a very practical solution."
If Pattillo were younger, he would probably have been sentenced to a five-year prison term and ordered to remain incarcerated for the full period, August said.
"Fortunately, the incident has not caused any serious injury to anybody other than himself, suffering some scratches during the course of all this," August said.
Pattillo was arrested by officers who found him hiding in bushes near where the stolen truck was stopped.
A Kihei patrol officer saw the truck speeding on Piilani Highway at 2:40 a.m., and reported following as the vehicle turned onto Welakahao Road and continued through the residential neighborhood. When the truck stopped at Mehani Circle, the officer reported seeing Pattillo and two other males leave the vehicle. Police couldn't find the younger males, who ran through a backyard and into a gulch. Pattillo, identified as the driver, was found hiding in the hedge of a home on Mehani Circle, police said.
The truck owner, who didn't realize his vehicle had been stolen until police called him, discovered that someone had entered his residence on South Kihei Road and taken the truck keys, as well as a laptop computer, camera and purse.
While the conviction is his first on Maui, Pattillo's criminal record dates to the early 1950s in California, August said.
Pattillo said he had an escape conviction for walking away from an honor camp. He told police he was involved in robbery "long ago."
Asked why he had such a long criminal history, Pattillo said, "I grew up in a bad neighborhood. I think the neighborhood had a lot to do with it."
When he was 10 or 12, Pattillo said, his family moved to the Long Beach and Compton area of California.
"You blame this on Compton?" August asked.
"I'm saying my neighborhood was violent," Pattillo replied. He referred to the "immaturity of youth and growing pains."
"When do you think you're going to stop growing?" the judge asked.
"I have no problem here at all," Pattillo said.
As he faced sentencing on Friday, he denied he was driving the stolen truck. Pattillo said he had been drinking at a house a few blocks from a Tesoro station when his keys were taken away. He said he was walking home on Piilani Highway at about 2 a.m. when the truck stopped and the driver offered Pattillo a ride.
"I was a passenger, I never drove that truck," he said. "Dumb mistake on my part getting into the car, but I wanted a ride home."
Deputy Prosecutor Carson Tani said Pattillo gave a different account to police when he was found, denying that he had been in the truck.
"Nobody saw me driving or operating the truck," he told police.
"It's a statement that a skilled criminal would make," Tani said.
* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.
