Thomas Siaumau, convicted of seven counts related to the shooting of a police vehicle with an officer behind the wheel two years ago was today sentenced to 30 years imprisonment.
Associate Justice Fiti Sunia, flanked by Associate Judges Mamea Sala Jr and Tunupopo Alalafaga said it was an extremely rare situation when the court has to sit in judgement to determine a sentence following a verdict containing seven convictions, and even far more rare when the offenses are as serious as they are in Siaumau’s case.
He said because of the rarity, it was difficult for the court to make a judgement “having not previously experienced this sort of matter and not previously encountered these sort of facts.”
Siaumau was convicted by a jury of first degree assault, two counts of property damage first degree, possession of a prohibited weapon, unlawful use of a weapon public peace disturbance and corruption of a juvenile.
Associate Justice Sunia said that it was sheer luck that no one was injured or worse, killed.
He said the defendant was previously convicted of property damage and assault which had similar circumstances to the current case.
Officers who were responding to an incident were assaulted with rocks that damaged a police vehicle.
In that case Siaumau entered a plea agreement and was sentenced to probation.
He was still serving probation when he was involved in the shooting of the police vehicle at the Tony Solata baseball field.
Throughout his trial Siaumau had maintained his innocence, that he wasn’t responsible for the shooting at the police unit and the lights at the baseball field.
Defense attorney Daniel Holladay of the RDA Lawfirm had asked that the 20 year old defendant be given a probated sentence and be allowed to join his wife and kids in California.
But prosecutor Assistant Attorney General Christy Dunn reminded the court that the defendant was on probation when he committed the latest crime, an indication that probation does not work as a deterrent
She asked for a sentence with detention.
Sunia spoke at length about the facts of the case and their impact on society before he announced the actual sentence.
He said, “It is the attitude of this place that we care for each other. It is an extension of our culture that has woven into law enforcement.
“And that is why we have no weapons because we rely on our respect of each other and we rely on our upbringing where there’s respect of one another.
“We even believe that the transition from our cultural form of government into the formal form of government we have now was made easier as evidenced by the Deed of Cession by the fact that we had ingrained in our upbringing, respect.”
But he said “this case in our view is a disregard of that respect”
“Lose respect and we end up in a lawless society,” said the judge.
“Officers are the only barrier between our safety and our prey. And they have not been armed. Their work depends on our respect and when there is disrespect their work fails. When their work fails we as a community suffer.”
Sunia said “this was a serious, serious serious case; this was a serious, serious serious incident and we do not believe that probation is the proper judgement. ”
He sentenced Siaumau to 30 years for assault first, 5 years for illegal use of a weapon, 1 year for possession of a prohibited weapon, 5 years for each of the two charges of property damage first degree, 15 years for corruption of a juvenile and 6 months for public peace disturbance. The sentences are to be served concurrently. That is togethet as opposed to one after the other.
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