HILO — A 26-year-old woman was sentenced Friday to five years in prison to charges stemming from a rampage in a stolen car last April in Hilo.
Cherish Torres will have to serve a mandatory minimum of 20 months behind bars with credit for time served before she is eligible for parole.
Torres pleaded no contest on Sept. 29 for driving a stolen vehicle, second-degree property damage and resisting an order to stop. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors reduced a first-degree property damage charge and dropped charges of speeding, running a red light and failure to yield right of way.
She was also resentenced to a five-year concurrent term of imprisonment for violating her probation for a 2013 burglary of a Puna home.
Torres’ court-appointed attorney, Kanani Laubach, asked Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara to follow the plea agreement.
“(Torres) did express that she wants to take responsibility and that she would definitely need some drug treatment that she understands that any type of parole would be considered,” Laubach said.
Torres, who declined to make a statement to the court, faced a possible 10 years in prison if she had been convicted of first-degree property damage.
Shortly before 4 p.m. April 11, Officer Christopher Jelsma attempted to stop Torres at the corner of Lanikaula and Nowelo streets, for driving a Honda Civic sedan without a front license plate, but Torres fled.
Torres then collided into another car at the intersection of Komohana Street and Ainaola Drive, and then struck Jelsma’s vehicle while fleeing down Haihai Street.
At the corner of Haihai Street and Kilauea Avenue, the Honda bore down on an officer on foot. In response, the officer fired a shot toward the Honda, which then struck one of the pursuing police vehicles, causing both vehicles to end up in a ditch.
The officer who fired the shot was not identified in court documents, but documents state the officer the Honda sped toward as Officer Ewoud Bezemer.
The Honda turned out to be stolen five days earlier from Shawnna Au and the license plate on it was taken from another vehicle stolen April 10 in Hawaiian Paradise Park.
The Honda was stolen during Merrie Monarch week and had a Tahitian dance costume and implements that Au, who danced in the hula festival’s Wednesday night Hoike, needed for her performance.
Hara ordered Torres to make restitution of $1,478 to Au, $1,143 to Jelsma and $1,129.41 to Elias Yadao.
Torres was allowed to enter a no-contest plea because of civil liability. In August, Hilo District Judge Harry Freitas granted a default judgment of $22,733.56 to DTRIC Insurance Co. against Torres on a property damage claim, according to court records.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
