In an unanimous ruling Thursday, the high court ruled that trial judge Peter Cahill erred in failing to instruct the jury adequately on the “restraint” of the victim needed to convict for kidnapping in the case of David Sheffield.

Sheffield was found guilty of kidnapping on Dec. 20, 2016, for grabbing a Makawao woman by her backpack, dragging her toward some bushes and threatening to rape her as she was trying to hitchhike home from Kahului on the night of Nov. 16, 2015.

Sheffield was sentenced to 20 years in prison on the Class A felony.

“This is new law,” said Matthew Kohm, Sheffield’s attorney, on Friday. “The law of kidnapping has changed.

“I’m very happy that he (Sheffield) is going to get a new trial.”

The use of the kidnapping charge “is a little bit troubling in Hawaii,” Kohm said. He noted that prior to the trial, prosecutors dismissed a third degree assault charge, a misdemeanor with maximum of 1 year in jail, and pursued the Class A felony kidnapping charge, which has a mandatory 20-year sentence.

In arguing his case before the high court, Kohm said kidnapping should be applied in only “the most severe conduct” and should not be a “companion charge” for robbery, assault or sexual assault. When there is a threat but no severe crime committed, “prosecution for kidnapping instead of attempt may amount to an end run.”

In its ruling, the high court noted that instead of being prosecuted for attempted assault in the third degree or a sex offense, “Sheffield was tried and punished solely for kidnapping.”

During the trial, the victim, a 24-year-old University of Hawaii Maui College student at the time, testified that she thought she had missed the last bus Upcountry after her anthropology class got out later than usual.

She had walked through Kahului to the intersection of Dairy Road and Hana Highway when she was confronted by Sheffield, who had been following her and trying to talk to her, she testified. The victim said Sheffield blocked her way as she was crossing the highway to go toward Marco’s Grill & Deli and said, “I want to f– you.”

He tried to hit her but missed before grabbing the loop at the top of her backpack when she turned to run away, she said. She said Sheffield dragged her several steps toward the bushes before struck his chest with her palm and spun away from him, before he grabbed her again and she again got away.

The victim ran into traffic and was halfway across Dairy Road, with Sheffield following, when she was stopped by the traffic and ran back toward the Savers store, now Bedmart Furniture, she said. From there, she ran to Maui Marketplace, where she called her boyfriend from the Old Navy store. He drove from Makawao to pick her up in the Home Depot parking lot.

The key legal question in the appeal was whether grabbing the victim by the loop on her backpack so that she could not free herself and pulling her back five to 10 steps while repeatedly threatening to rape and beat her constituted the restraint necessary for conviction. Kohm said in his arguments that there are no Hawaii cases “exploring the level of restraint necessary to support a kidnapping conviction where there is an incidental but unprosecuted crime.”

Kohm argued and the justices concurred that the restraint had to be in excess of that needed to convict on the uncharged third degree assault. The high court ruled that “the restraint necessary to support a kidnapping conviction . . . must be restraint that is in excess of any restraint incidental to the infliction or intended infliction of bodily injury” or a sexual offense.

The trial judge erred in failing to instruct the jury of the restraint necessary for convicting for kidnapping, the high court said. However, the justices did determine that the prosecution met the evidentiary bar for the kidnapping charge. Hence, the case was remanded for retrial and not dismissed, Kohm explained.

This is an important ruling because people like Sheffield, who has been homeless at times, “have been marginalized” and should have the opportunity to defend themselves and to receive “the fair trial they deserve,” said Kohm.

He said he felt privileged to be part of the case and to have “the opportunity to help shape the law.”

* Lee Imada can be reached at leeimada@mauinews.com.