Fourth Waiawa escapee’s guilty plea might add 5 years to term

The fourth Waiawa Correctional Facility inmate charged with escaping from the Central Oahu minimumsecurity prison in June pleaded guilty Thursday.

Elijah Kea-Kahumoku, 28, now faces a prison term of up to five years when he is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 29.

City Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bell said he will ask Circuit Judge Karen Ahn to stack the escape sentence to his current prison term for illegally possessing personal private information of others and unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle.

Kea-Kahumoku was among the four prisoners who climbed over two 6-foot fences to get out of the facility’s housing unit and walked off the property on June 25.

The other three are Jordan White, 20, and David Carvalho Jr., 40, who pleaded guilty; and George Thomas, 24, who pleaded no contest to escape charges. They are awaiting sentencing scheduled for next month and November.

All four pleaded guilty or no contest without a plea agreement.

Bell said he will ask that the maximum five-year prison term for the escape run consecutively to the current sentences of all four prisoners.

Deputy Public Defender Catherine Gutierrez said KeaKahumoku was “taking responsibility” for his actions.

The escape triggered an islandwide search for the inmates, who were caught June 27.