Brok Carlton is resentenced Tuesday to prison terms totaling 25 years for robbery and unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle. His attorney, Richard Gronna, appears by videoconference for the hearing in 2nd Circuit Court. The Maui News / LILA FUJIMOTO photo

WAILUKU — Saying the crimes were “abhorrent,” a judge Tuesday ordered prison terms totaling 25 years for a man convicted of robbing a former employee who was beaten with baseball bats, kicked and doused with gasoline before his car was stolen.

Brok Carlton, 46, was resentenced for the second time after appeals courts twice vacated his sentences and sent the case back to 2nd Circuit Court.

In arguing for consecutive prison terms for first-degree robbery and unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle, Deputy Prosecutor Mike Kagami said Carlton planned what would happen when he and others went to victim Andy Burkhart’s apartment in Honokowai the night of March 21, 2013.

“He went, having zip ties, bringing a bat, bringing gasoline and bringing matches,” Kagami said. “He went there intending to cause serious injury to Mr. Burkhart.

“They tried to tie him up, beat him, poured gasoline on him and tried to light him up.”

Defense attorney Richard Gronna said Carlton and the others didn’t try to set Burkhart on fire, but wanted to find out what he had done with money that was missing from Carlton’s safe.

Burkhart was one of two people who had access to the safe where Carlton had kept $100,000 he had saved to pay off debt, Gronna said. He said Carlton found some drugs and $10,000 in the safe before going to Burkhart’s apartment with three other men.

Before he was sentenced to prison in 2014, Carlton was a successful business owner and single parent, Gronna said.

He said what happened was “aberrant behavior.”

“There’s nothing to indicate he ever engaged in any type of violence, especially to this degree,” Gronna said.

While incarcerated for the past six years, “he’s been a model prisoner,” Gronna said.

He argued for concurrent prison terms totaling 20 years.

Carlton was given the chance to speak last before Judge Peter Cahill imposed the sentence Tuesday, in keeping with a state Supreme Court opinion in the case saying the defendant should be allowed “the last word before sentence is imposed.”

After a jury found Carlton guilty of first-degree robbery, kidnapping, second-degree assault and unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle, he was sentenced in June 2014 to prison terms totaling 50 years.

After he appealed, the state Intermediate Court of Appeals vacated the convictions for kidnapping, first-degree robbery and second-degree assault because the jury hadn’t been given instructions to make findings on whether the charges were for distinct actions or part of a continuing course of conduct. The appeals court said the prosecution could retry Carlton on the charges or dismiss two of the three counts and have Carlton resentenced on the remaining count.

At his first resentencing in April 2017, the prosecution disclosed its decision to reinstate the first-degree robbery conviction and dismiss the other two charges. Carlton then was resentenced to prison terms totaling 25 years.

The Supreme Court opinion handed down in November said that Carlton, who spoke before the prosecution’s argument at his 2017 sentencing, wasn’t allowed to address the court after being informed which charge he would be resentenced on. The Supreme Court vacated the sentence and sent the case back for resentencing by a different judge.

Before resentencing Carlton, Judge Cahill said he reviewed transcripts of the trial proceedings, as well as other records in the case.

“The trial testimony is quite dramatic,” Cahill said. “I agree, it was aberrant what he did. It was also abhorrent, and that can’t be ignored.

“Given the abhorrent conduct in this case, the sentence must reflect adequate deterrence for criminal conduct and protect the public from further crimes of the defendant.

“The circumstances of what occurred here are so dramatic, there is always going to be a concern, if the occasion arose, the defendant may commit another crime.”

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.