Man gets prison for kidnapping 4 during a robbery

A state judge sentenced Patrick Deguair Jr. to 20 years in prison Wednesday for holding four people captive in Aiea Cue during an April 2008 robbery.

A state jury found Deguair, 35, guilty last September of robbery and four counts of kidnapping.

One of the kidnapping charges carries a mandatory 20-year prison term because Deguair and his two admitted accomplices left one of their victims handcuffed when they fled the pool hall. The other kidnapping charges carry maximum 10-year prison terms because the robbers released the other victims unharmed.

Circuit Judge Glenn Kim did not sentence Deguair for robbery because he ruled that it was covered by the 20-year kidnapping charge.

Prosecutor Scott Bell had asked Kim to sentence Deguair to an extended term of life in prison with the opportunity for parole because the jury found Deguair guilty of multiple felonies. The prosecutor asked that, if the life term were not granted, Deguair be sentenced to 30 years.

Kim rejected Bell’s requests.

“No one was hurt, (the robbery) was fairly brief. There were no weapons involved except, arguably, (a) crowbar,” Kim said.

He also said Deguair has no prior felony convictions.

Another jury found Deguair guilty in April 2011 of kidnapping Jermaine Duckworth, whose body was found one week before the Aiea Cue robbery on some rocks at the bottom of a cliff near Yokohama Bay beach. Duckworth had been shot in the back of the head. The jury deadlocked 6-6 on whether the state proved Deguair was guilty of Duckworth’s murder.

Kim threw out the kidnapping verdict because of juror misconduct and dismissed the murder count because it was the second time a jury was unable to reach a verdict on the charge. The first jury also deadlocked 6-6.

The state is appealing Kim’s dismissal of the murder charge and kidnapping verdict.

Deguair went on trial in 2004 for three counts of attempted murder for a drive-by shooting in Waipio. No one was injured in the shooting.

That jury acquitted Deguair after none of the victims identified him or anybody else as the shooter.

Deguair has one more trial scheduled, for a November 2007 home-invasion robbery in Maili for which Duckworth was arrested. The trial is supposed to start in March but could be delayed because Deguair’s court-appointed lawyer, Cliff Hunt, quit after Wednesday’s sentencing.