A federal judge in Honolulu on Monday said a retired police officer “acted cowardly, reprehensibly and despicably” when he punched another elderly passenger aboard a cruise ship en route to Hilo from Los Angeles almost four years ago.
U.S. District Judge Jill A. Otake made the statement as she sentenced 78-year-old John McAvay of Henderson, Nev., to 46 months of imprisonment followed by a year of supervised release — the federal equivalent of probation.
Otake found McAvay guilty of assault resulting in serious bodily injury after a nonjury trial in May.
According to court documents, the assault occurred at about 9 p.m. on Oct. 23, 2018, aboard the Star Princess — since renamed the Pacific Encounter — about 593 nautical miles away from Hilo.
The victim, a 73-year-old U.S. citizen identified only by his initials, told authorities he was using a closed bathroom stall on the starboard side of the ship’s seventh deck. The man said as he opened the stall door to leave, he was confronted by an agitated man. The two exchanged words, and the second man punched the victim in the head as the victim tried to leave.
A third passenger in the bathroom told police he witnessed McAvay punch the victim in the head with a closed right fist. He said the victim hit his head on the toilet as he went down from the punch.
The witness said he tried to follow McAvay but didn’t see which direction he went. He returned to call for help and to render aid to the victim.
After the attack, the victim recovered consciousness, but his condition deteriorated over the next couple of days, and a military helicopter airlifted the man from the ship in the early morning of Oct. 25, 2018, and took him to Hilo Medical Center in critical condition. He was then transported to The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, where he remained hospitalized for approximately one month.
The victim was later transported to a hospital in California and subsequently to a rehabilitation facility.
As a result of the assault, the victim suffered from serious cognitive and physical impairments — including confusion, memory loss and immobility — until his death on Feb. 6, 2019.
Other passengers told the FBI McAvay might be the assailant after they saw him gesturing with his fist and overheard him at an Oahu luau on Oct. 26, 2018, telling his wife about the assault.
McAvay was arrested by the FBI on Oct. 29, 2018.
After the victim died in 2019, McAvay was charged with involuntary manslaughter. Otake, however, found him not guilty of that charge as the court couldn’t find beyond a reasonable doubt the victim’s death wasn’t caused solely by a preexisting cancer.
In finding McAvay guilty of assault, Otake found the victim posted “no threat” to McAvay, and added that although McAvay “could have simply walked away,” he instead “sucker-punched” the victim in the head out of anger.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.