WAILUKU - A woman who didn't show up for a court hearing and agreed to end her participation in the Maui Drug Court was sentenced to a 10-year prison term.
"I know I screwed up," Geranium Kuhaulua, 39, of Pukalani said at her sentencing Jan. 17. "So I deserve it."
Kuhaulua had been on probation for charges of third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug, possessing drug paraphernalia, second-degree identity theft, unauthorized possession of confidential personal information, theft of a credit card, fraudulent use of a credit card and second-degree theft in two cases.
Facing revocation of her probation after not reporting to her probation officer, she was admitted in March into the Drug Court program offering drug treatment and supervision as an alternative to incarceration.
But in September, Deputy Prosecutor Renee Ishikawa Delizo said "things started to fall apart" when Kuhaulua didn't comply with her curfew.
On Oct. 4, "she was on the run," after leaving her approved housing, not keeping in contact with her case manager and not showing up in court, Ishikawa Delizo said.
She said Kuhaulua's theft convictions were for using her mother's personal information to open a Radio Shack account and obtain $1,981 in merchandise from stores in Kihei and Kahului in May 2009.
The drug charges stem from July 2010 when police investigating a report of a suspicious vehicle found Kuhaulua without a driver's license, Ishikawa Delizo said. She said police were arresting Kuhaulua when officers found a plastic packet containing 0.22 gram of crystal methamphetamine in her pants pocket.
While sentencing Kuhaulua to prison, 2nd Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza said she could still use what she had learned in Drug Court to make good choices. "Just because it wasn't successful this time around doesn't mean you can't be successful in the future," Cardoza said.
In other cases:
* A 26-year-old Wailuku man was sentenced Jan. 24 to a five-year prison term for second-degree burglary and attempted second-degree theft after being terminated from participation in the Maui Drug Court in July.
John Rawlins Jr. had asked for another chance on probation, acknowledging his mistakes while in the Drug Court program for more than two years.
His attorney, Walter Vierra, said Rawlins had already spent nearly two years in jail in one of his cases and had been in drug treatment since being released from jail in August.
"I don't think he needs to be punished any more," Vierra said.
Ishikawa Delizo recommended consecutive sentencing for a 10-year prison term for Rawlins. She said he had been on probation for the September 2006 attempted theft of a moped when he was arrested for an early-morning July 2007 break-in at a Wailuku law office.
He was facing revocation of his probation in the two cases when he was admitted into Drug Court in February 2010. Rawlins was given numerous chances, Ishikawa Delizo said. He missed at least six meetings and at least four drug tests, didn't follow his case manager's instructions and tested positive for drug use in April before being terminated from the program for dishonesty, Ishikawa Delizo said.
Cardoza imposed the five-year prison sentence, ordering that Rawlins be incarcerated at the same time for both convictions.
* A 19-year-old man was sentenced to a five-year prison term on a drug charge after failing to follow court orders while released on supervision.
Wesley Brandon had pleaded no contest to third-degree promotion of a harmful drug.
Police reported finding him with 25 prescription muscle relaxant pills after being called to investigate a report of a man stumbling in the roadway on Waiehu Beach Road near Kuhio Street the afternoon of Oct. 1, 2011. Brandon was carrying a sleeping bag and stick and was crying and talking loudly to himself, according to court records.
A plea agreement between the defense and the prosecution recommended probation and no further jail for Brandon.
But after being released on supervision in July, he didn't keep in contact with the Maui Intake Service Center several times and was arrested Sept. 19 on the Big Island, court records show.
Second Circuit Judge Peter Cahill imposed the prison sentence Jan. 10.
