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Man admits to beating tourist and raping his daughter

Nelson Daranciang

A 29-year-old man accused of beating up a Washington visitor he met on the pool deck of a Waikiki condominium-hotel then raping the man’s 10-year-old daughter has agreed to a 30-year prison term.

Christopher Cantrell pleaded guilty in state court Monday to five counts of first-degree sexual assault, one count of third-degree sexual assault, promoting child abuse, kidnapping, burglary and assault in a plea deal with the state. The child abuse charge is for recording pornographic images of the girl.

Deputy City Prosecutor Landon Murata said he offered Cantrell the deal out of concern for the welfare of the minor victim who would have been asked to testify in trial. 

Without the deal Cantrell was facing the possibility of multiple life prison terms.

Cantrell accepted the deal on the first day the court was to begin selecting the jury for his trial and after the judge refused to allow him to fire his court-appointed lawyer. The court had previously allowed Cantrell to fire his public defender.

Police said Cantrell met the girl and her father Sept. 17, 2008 on the pool deck of the Waikiki Banyan and accompanied them to their 12th-floor hotel room. They said Cantrell asked the man if he could take nude pictures of the girl then punched him repeatedly until the man was unconscious.

He then took the girl to the 10th-floor laundry room where he raped her, police said.

Cantrell is originally from South Carolina. 

He was court martialed while in the Marine Corps and sentenced to three years of confinement for missing duty, being drunk on duty, stealing a big screen television from the barracks’ common area and setting fire to one of the rooms, according to his military record. Cantrell recently completed his confinement when he met the man and girl visiting from Washington.

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