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The man accused of buying nearly $20,000 worth of clothes, liquor and boxes of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts using Australian professional golfer Robert Allenby’s credit cards pleaded guilty in state court Tuesday in a deal with the city prosecutor.
Owen Patrick Harbison of Salt Lake pleaded guilty to one count each of identity theft and attempted theft for using Allenby’s American Express credit card, and to unauthorized possession of confidential personal information for having Allenby’s identification cards.
Honolulu police arrested Harbison after Allenby reported that his wallet was stolen from him while he was in Honolulu for the Sony Open in January.
Defense lawyer Arthur Indiola said Harbison pleaded guilty because it was in his best interest.
Harbison, 32, had been charged with three counts each of identity theft and attempted theft plus the single count of possessing Allenby’s identification cards.
The city prosecutor agreed to drop two counts each of the identity theft and attempted theft, and reduced the identity theft to a Class C felony.
The original identity theft charge is a Class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The maximum penalty for the Class C charge is five years in prison.
The deal does not require Harbison to pay restitution.
The two sides also agreed to a five-year prison sentence with no mandatory minimum.
State Circuit Judge Glenn Kim said that because Harbison and the state agreed to the five-year prison term in their binding agreement, and both sides also agreed to waive a pre-sentence investigation and report, he could have imposed the sentence Tuesday. Instead, he scheduled sentencing for August.
Deputy Prosecutor Jacob Delaplane said he has kept in touch with Allenby.
"I have spoken to him about the plea agreement. He’s not happy about it but he did agree to it," Delaplane said.
The plea deal means Allenby will not have to return to Hawaii to testify in a trial.
Harbison has not and is not required to say how he got Allenby’s credit cards and identification.
Allenby told police that he was drinking at Amuse wine bar on Kapiolani Boulevard on Jan. 16 when he was drugged, kidnapped, robbed and thrown into the trunk of a car before getting dumped at a park 6.5 miles away.
He went out after missing the golf tournament’s weekend cut.
Bystanders told police they found Allenby on the ground across the street from the wine bar. One said Allenby injured himself when the golfer passed out and hit his head on a rock.
Allenby later said in a news conference that he has no memory of what happened to him in the roughly 21⁄2 hours between the time he left the wine bar and when bystanders found him.
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