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The Hawaii Supreme Court today set aside a Big Island man’s conviction for attempted sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl at a Pepeekeo church in 2007, ordering a new trial on the charges.
A jury found Peter Kalani Bailey guilty on four counts of first-degree attempted sexual assault. At the time of the alleged offenses, he was the music director for the church, the Hamakua Coast Assembly of God.
The high court ordered the new trial because one of the jurors during deliberations informed the other panelists that Bailey had been either charged or convicted of murder.
The statements violated Bailey’s right to a fair trial, the court held.
Bailey and Francis Talo had been convicted in 1979 of murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Carol Olandy on Oahu.
In the Big Island case, Bailey is accused of taking the girl to the church to practice singing and molesting her the evening of July 22, 2007.
