A Honolulu cab driver accused of sexually assaulting two female passengers in separate incidents last year was found guilty Friday in connection with one of the cases. 

Enio Tablas, 54, was found guilty of two counts of third-degree sexual assault involving a then-21-year-old woman he picked up after midnight July 5. He faces up to five years in prison on each count when he is sentenced Jan. 27, and will have to register as a convicted sex offender, according to a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office. 

Under city rules, Tablas was allowed to keep his taxi certificate while the cases were pending. Although he remains free on bail, he likely won’t be allowed to continue operating a cab now that he has been convicted.

The woman in this case, now 23, testified that she had been drinking with some friends in Waikiki and was walking home when Tablas approached her and offered her a free ride. There were already two Australian men riding in the cab, so the woman said she felt safe. 

Although the men urged Tablas to drop the woman off first because she lived nearby, Tablas instead dropped the men off first. He testified that after the men left, the woman did not want to go home, so he brought her to Kahala Beach. 

The woman, whom the Star-Advertiser is not naming because of the nature of the crime, testified that she wanted to go home, but she drifted in and out of consciousness during the ride. “The next thing I remember is being parked and being assisted out of the car by the cabdriver. I could barely stand on my own. He had to hold me up.” 

Tablas eventually led her to a lawn chair, where he sexually assaulted her. While she testified that she was terrified, he said the encounter was consensual, and she did not resist. Afterward, he drove her home and told her, “Remember me — I’m the red cab.” 

Tablas was initially charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault, which would have carried up to 10 years in prison for each count. 

No trial date has been set for the second case, in which Tablas also faces two counts of second-degree sex assault. In that case, a 21-year-old woman told police she was walking alone at 1 a.m. March 29, 2014, along Nuuanu Avenue. She said she’d had been drinking, and Tablas approached in his red taxi and offered her a free ride. She told police she passed out in the cab, and when she awoke Tablas was raping her.