Gregory Allen Farr was sleeping in his living room when he was awakened by the barks of the family dog, Deputy Prosecutor Wilson Unga told a state judge Tuesday. Someone was pushing on the front door and jiggling the doorknob. That was at 3:45 a.m. April 14.
Farr, 33, was sleeping on the couch, just 10 feet away from the front door of his Ocean Pointe town home in Ewa Beach, because he had a cast on one of his ankles from a recent surgery.
Unga said Farr yelled out, “Hey, who is it? Hey,” but got no response. So Farr crawled up to a second-floor bedroom, retrieved a rifle, went back downstairs and called out again. Still no response. Unga said Farr then fired a shot through the closed front door, killing 41-year-old Navy Chief Petty Officer John Ellsworth Hasselbrink.
An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment Tuesday charging Farr with manslaughter and two counts of possessing an unregistered firearm.
Manslaughter is a Class A felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $50,000 fine. Possessing an unregistered firearm is a petty misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Unga told Circuit Judge Colette Garibaldi that Farr has no criminal record but asked her to set bail at $100,000. Garibaldi set it at $75,000.
Navy officials said Hasselbrink was a submariner who served 22 years at Pearl Harbor and that police told them Hasselbrink was shot attempting to enter a residence other than his own by mistake.
Unga said Hasselbrink lived in Unit D-2 in a complex of identical-looking town homes. Farr lives in Unit C-2. He said before Hasselbrink went out for a night of drinking, he left his front door unlocked in case he lost his key.
When Hasselbrink returned home, an Uber dropped him off at Unit C-2, Unga said.