On his last day in office, Gov. Neil Abercrombie pardoned a 35-year-old Enchanted Lake man who was found guilty in 2002 of a Manoa home invasion gunpoint robbery and kidnapping of a mother and daughter.

Shaun Rodrigues, a former alarms systems installer, has maintained he was not the man who on July 8, 2000, confronted Dianne Sugihara with a gun as she was getting ready to shower, told her to lie on the floor and took the diamond wedding ring she was wearing. When her daughter, Dawn, got home, she was also told to lie on the floor, and they were both tied up as the robber took their cash and jewelry.

Rodrigues, who was sentenced Sept. 10, 2004, to 20 years’ imprisonment, served about six years before being paroled.

On Dec. 1, Abercrombie pardoned Rodrigues of five felony convictions — two counts of first-degree robbery, two counts of kidnapping, and first-degree burglary.

Rodrigues was one of 82 people convicted of various crimes who were pardoned by Abercrombie during his four years in office. The crimes occurred as early as the 1970s and range from trespassing and having no no-fault insurance to Rodrigues’ crimes, which are among the most serious.

However, Anne Lopez, spokeswoman for the state Department of the Attorney General, said pardons could continue to trickle in to the department as they are processed, so it is unknown if Abercrombie had any other last-minute pardons.

Abercrombie could not be reached for comment.

In Hawaii, the effect of a pardon is an exercise of executive forgiveness, Lopez said: "The governor has forgiven the person for the crime." It is not wiped off a person’s record, she said.

Rodrigues waived his right to a jury trial and Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall convicted him, citing the women’s identification of Rodrigues from a photo lineup two days after the incident.

Rodrigues’ lawyers contended it was a case of mistaken identity, and that the women had described him as dark-skinned when he is fair-skinned. They argued that he had installed an alarm system in their home so police came up with a theory in a rush to arrest someone for a rash of home invasion robberies in the Manoa.

Rodrigues’ mother testified her son was home sleeping when the crime occurred, as did other family members, but the judge said she considered "their bias, their presence and absence at the relevant time, their demeanor while testifying and the compelling and credible testimony of the complaining witnesses."

Rodrigues’ family launched a campaign proclaiming his innocence, held a press conference, organized a group called Friends of Shaun Rodrigues that published newspaper ads.

The Sugiharas declined comment on the pardon, and Rodrigues did not return a call to the Star-Advertiser.

Rodrigues was also facing a terroristic threatening charge from a foiled July 6, 2000, burglary of another Manoa home, two days before the Sugihara home invasion robbery. That case had been put on hold while Rodrigues was on trial for the home invasion robbery.

In the terroristic threatening case, residents arrived home, surprising the suspect, who was spotted in a yard with a ladder propped up against their house. When a family member approached him and asked for identification, the man pulled out a gun, swore and asked if he "wanted it," before fleeing.

In 2005, a state judge dismissed the terroristic threatening charge because the state took too long to bring the case to trial.

The home invasion trial lasted Aug. 6 to Aug. 28, 2001, but closing arguments were not presented until Feb. 8, 2002, because the defense said he was placed on active duty with the Hawaii National Guard after 9/11.

Rodrigues remained free on bail while he appealed the home invasion case. On Dec. 7, 2005, the Hawaii Supreme Court upheld his conviction, affirming the lower court’s decision not to reopen the trial.

In May 2006, the Hawaii Paroling Authority ordered him to spend a minimum 12 years in prison. But in November 2011, the parole board reduce his minimum sentence to six years, and he was released Dec. 13, 2011, Toni Schwartz, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety said.