WAILUKU — A man who was close to completing the Maui Drug Court program when he opted to end his participation was resentenced Tuesday to a five-year prison term.

Daniel Garcia, 43, of Kahului, who had spent four years in the program offering intensive treatment and supervision as an alternative to incarceration, asked to be placed back on probation.

“Why would you think probation would be better for you than the Maui Drug Court?” 2nd Circuit Judge Kelsey Kawano asked Garcia. “You were on the cusp of graduation and you self-terminated. That’s just the coward’s way out.”

Garcia was facing prison for another revocation of his probation in a 2016 case when he entered Drug Court in August 2018, said Deputy Prosecutor Kenton Werk.

He said Garcia progressed through the first three phases before entering the last phase, where he was left to make decisions on his own. During two years and eight months in that phase, “he repeatedly approached that goal, that finish line of graduation, but would become unstable and returned to old patterns, to criminal thinking,” Werk said.

He said Garcia repeatedly broke traffic laws and didn’t inform his court officer. Garcia also showed “very little insight” in a writing assignment.

“While it appears he’s not using drugs, he is committing crimes, albeit traffic crimes,” Werk said.

He said Garcia was driving a vehicle that wasn’t legal to be on the road and was driving without a license.

His criminal record, dating to 2005, includes five felony convictions including ones for grand theft from a person and second-degree burglary in California, Werk said. He said Garcia also has nine convictions for misdemeanor offenses.

The defendant’s attempt to graduate from Drug Court without telling his court officer about the traffic crimes “makes a mockery of what it means to be a Drug Court graduate,” said Werk, who recommended the five-year prison sentence.

While in the program, Garcia overcame challenges, said Deputy Public Defender Brad Sova.

“He proved he could stay clean,” Sova said.

He said Garcia decided to end his participation in Drug Court rather than try to graduate from the program because “he doesn’t want to be unencumbered.”

“He doesn’t want monitoring to end because he’s not ready to be on his own,” Sova said.

Garcia said he had reestablished accounts and was running his business.

“The success in my life was completely evident,” he said.

Judge Kawano sentenced Garcia to five-year prison terms, to be served at the same time, for unauthorized possession of confidential personal information, theft of a credit card and third-degree identity theft.

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