Man police shot was awaiting auto theft trial

Three weeks after his 18th birthday, Amery Kahale-Sugimura was arrested for auto theft and burglary, and in the 17 years since, he has racked up 14 felony convictions, court records show.

Police pursuing Kahale-Sugimura shot him Tuesday after he allegedly assaulted a 68-year-old Aiea resident and tried to get away in the resident’s truck, striking two officers.

Kahale-Sugimura, aka Jon Edward Dudoit, now faces five counts of first-degree attempted murder, one count of burglary, and two counts of vehicle theft, but had not been charged Wednesday evening.

When he was shot, he was out on $40,000 bail awaiting trial in an auto theft case after a similar altercation with police in September.

Honolulu Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro blames a lack of prison space as the root cause of perpetrators of property crimes being released early and back out on the street to commit more crimes.

"Property crimes and drug crimes eventually escalate to become violent crimes," he said.

"Parole would be more meaningful" if the consequences for violating parole would be harsher, serving to deter others, said the former state public safety director in an interview.

Kaneshiro said judges may place a person on supervised release to prevent further prison overcrowding, and probation officers are under pressure to recommend supervised release because prisons are full.

He said he supports building a new 2,000- to 3,000-bed prison and will be proposing a bill for extended terms and mandatory minimum sentences for repeat offenders of property crimes such as auto theft.

The Legislature has failed to pass such laws because there is no space in prisons, he said.

But Hawaii Paroling Authority administrator Tommy Johnson said Kaneshiro has picked the wrong example to plead his case.

The court set a mandatory minimum at three years, eight months, for Kahale-Sugimura’s 1997 robbery case, and the parole board set it at two times higher than the mandatory minimum, eight out of 10 years, Johnson said.

He was denied parole a few times for parole violations and returned to custody in April 2008. He was paroled in June 2009, and remained on parole until May 31, 2012, when he was discharged.

"It has nothing to do with prison space," he said.

"He failed himself and his community," Johnson said. "You can’t blame the criminal justice system for his failure because you can’t gauge human behavior."

On Tuesday, officers looking for Kahale-Sugimura in a burglary case spotted him at a Heleconia Place house in Aiea at 3:31 p.m.

He fled on a stolen motorcycle, crashed it at Alvah Scott Elementary School, then ran to a nearby house on Moanalua Road, police said.

Kahale-Sugimura hit a 68-year-old male resident in the head and entered the house, police said. While officers surrounded the house, Kahale-Sugimura jumped into the resident’s pickup truck.

He quickly reversed, accelerating the vehicle, and drove toward several officers, hitting two, who were not seriously injured, police said.

Four officers fired several shots, striking him multiple times, police said.

Police arrested him 3:48 p.m. at the scene. He was taken to the hospital in serious but stable condition.

Star-Advertiser reporter Gregg Kakesako contributed to this report.