Two 24-year-old Puna men have been sentenced for a burglary last year that originally was charged as a crime during a state of emergency.
Two 24-year-old Puna men have been sentenced for a burglary last year that originally was charged as a crime during a state of emergency.
The burglary occurred when Pahoa was being threatened by lava from Kilauea volcano’s June 27 flow.
Jesley Saniatan was sentenced Wednesday to four years probation and a year in jail, with credit for time served and the remainder taken under advisement as long as he complies with conditions of his probation.
His co-defendant, Ronald Altura Jr., was sentenced Dec. 2 to four years probation with 18 months in jail, with credit for time served and the remainder taken under advisement as long as he stays out of trouble while on probation.
Altura also was ordered to pay $5,381 in restitution to three victims.
Both were ordered by Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura to obtain substance abuse assessments and to follow any recommended treatment.
The pair was charged with a Sept. 8, 2014, burglary in Orchidland Estates subdivision in Puna.
A 35-year-old man told police he returned to his 34th Avenue home and saw Altura entering his house through a window, then coming out a door and fleeing in a van driven by Saniatan.
If convicted of burglary during an emergency, both could have faced 20-year prison terms, but both pleaded guilty to lesser charges, Altura of burglary and Saniatan of accessory to burglary.
“I regret the whole situation at the time,” Saniatan told the judge. “I made a lot of changes, and I look forward to working to support my 7-year-old daughter.”
Altura was on supervised release while pending trial for the 2014 burglary of the Mountain View home of a police detective when the Orchidland burglary occurred. He pleaded guilty to that burglary, as well. In exchange for his pleas, prosecutors agreed not to press charges on another pending burglary.
He didn’t speak at his sentencing, but one of his attorneys, Jennifer Wharton, told the judge Altura “does not deny any of the facts that are in the police report.”
“This was charged as a burglary in an emergency in an area that was not under any threat of what the emergency (was about),” she said. “It was just circumstance that it happened to be in the Puna District … when the lava was threatening Pahoa village.”
Altura’s other attorney, Christopher Bridges, said Altura was addicted to drugs and “is working hard to beat that addiction.”
Bridges added Lokahi Treatment Center provided information Altura “has been abstinent from alcohol and drugs since September of 2014.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.