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WAILUKU -- A Wailuku man was taken into custody Tuesday to serve a 30-day jail term for abusing his son, who was punched, kicked and duct-taped at his wrists and ankles.
Vincent Baylosis, 41, also was placed on five years' probation.
When he earlier pleaded guilty to kidnapping and felony abuse of the boy, who was a teenager, Baylosis acknowledged that "I hit my son, then I restrained him, and made him sit outside on the patio."
Another child who was under age 14 was home at the time.
During his sentencing Tuesday, Baylosis asked for a chance to keep a kidnapping conviction off his record.
He has no prior criminal record and "we believe this was an isolated incident," said his attorney, Annalisa Bernard.
"Being a parent is the hardest job in the world," she said. "We want to love and care for our children. We want to protect and provide for them. We want to teach them right from wrong, and the job is not easy. Sometimes, as parents, when we want to teach them right from wrong and discipline them, we make the wrong decision.
"Vincent knows that the decision he made on Feb. 6, 2019, was the wrong one."
At a court hearing in July for co-defendant Brandee Carvalho, Deputy Prosecutor Mike Kagami said the prosecution could prove at trial that she was upset at her stepson for going to robotics class when he was told not to. When the boy returned home, she was yelling at him and began poking his face with her finger, Kagami said. He said that transitioned into punching the boy in the face before she told her husband to start punching the boy, which he did.
Then she told Baylosis to duct-tape the boy's hands and feet, Kagami said. He said the boy was kicked and pushed down before he crawled onto the lanai and was told to stay there. He got away by crawling to his neighbor's house.
Carvalho, who had been scheduled to change her plea in the case, said she "strongly" disagreed with the account. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping and felony abuse, and her case is pending.
"There was a lot of stress and strife going on in their household among their family members," Bernard said Tuesday. "The parents and the children were all in therapy. They had been in therapy for many years."
She said that showed that "Vincent and his family are good people, they want to make good choices."
Friends and family members, including Baylosis' daughter who serves in the U.S. Navy in Florida, were in the courtroom gallery for the sentencing.
Kagami opposed the defendant's request to keep the conviction off his record. Based on the defendant's letter to the court, it was hard to believe that Baylosis understood what he did was wrong, Kagami said. "All he wrote was excuses," he said.
"He may truly want to be a good father, but he's got to understand he's not," Kagami said.
He said the victim was "in a tough position because that's his dad."
"He doesn't want things to be too harsh against him," Kagami said. "He does agree 30 days of jail is reasonable, given what happened to him."
Despite the difficulties of having separated parents and stepparents, family members should know to "don't put your children in a position where they're in the middle of some dispute between adults," Kagami said.
"That's really why this happened," he said.
Baylosis said he had "learned from this situation."
"We deserve to stay as an ohana," he said. "I don't want to lose any more time away from my family. I do my best every day."
Second Circuit Judge Peter Cahill denied Baylosis' request to keep the kidnapping conviction off his record.
In following a plea agreement to sentence Baylosis, Cahill said there were "extensive negotiations and discussions" between the defense and prosecution and the victim didn't oppose the recommended sentence.
Baylosis was ordered to complete anger management treatment and perform 200 hours of community service.
* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.