Man gets 10 years for toddler’s death

A former Hawaii island professional boxer was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the 2011 beating death of the 18-month-old daughter of his girlfriend, who he was indicted for strangling eight months later.

Kona Circuit Judge Ronald Ibarra also ordered 42-year-old Xavier “Pee Wee” Cortez Jr., 42, on Friday to make $54,197 restitution to the state Department of Human Services and Crime Victim Compensation Commission, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Wednesday.

Cortez pleaded no contest June 9 to first-degree assault in a plea agreement, the newspaper reported. Cortez was arrested in January 2014 after a grand jury indicted him on a second- degree murder charge in the death of toddler Pomaikai K. Ferreira in January 2011.

Hawaii island Deputy Prosecutor Rick Damerville said the plea bargain was made because of the death of one witness and the refusal of another to testify.

On Feb. 24, Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara dismissed a second-degree murder charge against Cortez for the Sept. 20, 2011, strangulation death of his 20-year-old girlfriend, Sommer Ferreira, in the Wainaku home where they lived.

A Hilo grand jury indictment against Cortez said he strangled the toddler’s mother because she witnessed him beating her child.

That charge was dismissed without prejudice, which means prosecutors are free to refile it at a later date. According to the Tribune-Herald, the dismissal came at the request of the prosecution because the state again couldn’t get the cooperation of witnesses.

In the case against Cortez in the death of the child, court records show that Keith Shigetomi, Cortez’s court-appointed attorney, asked the judge to sentence his client to probation and time already served. Cortez has been in custody since his arrest Jan. 28, 2014, following the murder indictment. Shigetomi disagreed with a presentencing report that said the circumstances that led to the toddler’s death and the strangulation death of the girl’s mother were likely to happen again, records state.

According to court records, the judge said during sentencing that he found no grounds to justify Cortez’s actions and that Cortez’s character, attitude and prior history of abuse made him a poor candidate for probation.