KEALAKEKUA — It’s been more than a year since Macdon Donny Thromman was in a 20-hour standoff with police after he allegedly shot his girlfriend and a police officer and his defense attorney didn’t hold back Thursday expressed how displeased she was with the state’s handling of the case.
“Mr. Thromman has been held for over a year effectively on no bail,” said defense attorney Terri Fujioka-Lilley, arguing the current bail of $309,200 is so far out of reach for her client it was impossible for him to meet.
“During that period he’s been denied critical medical care for health issues, he’s been unable to support his family, all while the state plays games with its charging decisions,” Fujioka-Lilley said.
On July 13 the 37-year-old Thromman was allegedly engaged in a dispute with his live-in girlfriend, who is the mother of their daughter, that resulted in him shooting her in the leg and a responding officer in the arm with an unregistered .30-.30 hunting rifle at their home in Kapaau.
Thromman was indicted on Tuesday on a list of 22 counts, less than the 27 counts in the original charge.
Fujioka-Lilley moved to dismiss most of the first indictment, leaving two counts of attempted murder and one count each of first-degree terroristic threatening, second-degree reckless endangerment, unpermitted possession of a firearm and failure to register a firearm, but was clear in court she was displeased with the changes.
“The charges range from inadequate to apprise him of what he must defend to those that are effectively incomprehensible,” Fujioka-Lilley said. “Now he’s faced with not knowing which version of a 22-count or 27-count indictment he must defend against.”
But the new indictment should resolve the issues raised, prosecuting attorney Kanuoue Jackson said in court.
She later told West Hawaii Today that the change was an effort to “preserve the case in what it was intended to be charged,” dealing with the same behavior in an alternate way that also resolved issues raised by the defense.
“Nothing different is being alleged,” she said.
During the hearing Third Circuit Chief Judge Ronald Ibarra moved to read the arraignment aloud. He shifted to calling a recess to allow Thromman and Fujioka-Lilley to go through the indictment with the assistance of a Marshallese translator.
Fujioka-Lilley said part of the delay comes from the fact she needs to examine the grand jury transcript.
“More importantly, your honor, I am troubled with the recent developments I am seeing from the prosecution having a pattern and practice of hastily and sloppily preparing indictments, and then re-indicting on the eve of trial. This is in clear contravention of my client’s constitutional rights, at least to due process, sufficient representation by counsel and to challenge the grand jury indictment was proper. And, more importantly, to be apprised of the charges he will actually be facing at trial,” she said.
Jackson told West Hawaii Today she disagreed.
“I don’t believe my office has ever haphazardly done anything,” she said.
The legal issues are not the sole problem with his continued detention, Fujioka-Lilley told WHT.
“He has a serious cardiac condition,” she said.
That condition has already led to him missing a court date when he was hospitalized at Queen’s Medical Center.
“For some reason they are not holding him in a facility where he can receive treatment,” Fujioka-Lilley said.
While at Hawaii Community Correctional Center he has begun to see his doctor, but the Department of Public Safety is billing his family instead of paying for the treatment. She said that’s the responsibility of the state while they keep him in custody.
The hearings continue at 10 a.m. today.
