The surviving children of Jaylin Kema, the mother of Peter “Peter Boy” Kema Jr., did not appear in court Tuesday, nor did they choose to have input before she was sentenced to 10 years’ probation in the 1997 death of their 6-year-old brother, a county deputy prosecutor said.
The three children “have mixed emotions about their mother,” said Deputy Prosecutor Rick Damerville. “Not saying she was the source of the abuse, but it’s inconceivable how she couldn’t have spoken up earlier.”
She was also sentenced to one year in prison, but was given credit for time served and had been on supervised release since April 27.
Damerville said daughter Chauntelle Woods, who lives in Florida, expressed interest in contacting her mother with the hope of reunification, and unbeknownst to Kema, Woods found her mother transitional housing.
The death of Peter Boy Kema, whose father began abusing him in infancy, went unadjudicated for nearly 20 years, and prosecutors say he died of septic shock from a festering wound the size of a quarter. His parents covered up the death, lying to authorities and the public by saying he disappeared after he was left with a hanai aunt in Honolulu.
Damerville said outside the courtroom that Jaylin Kema agreed to cooperate in 2003, and an indictment was pending, but she backed out at the last minute.
Hilo Circuit Judge Henry Nakamoto ruled Jaylin Kema cannot contact her three children or her father, James Acol, but would permit the probation office to make that allowance in the future if any family member is interested.
Both Jaylin Kema and Peter Kema Sr., who has yet to be sentenced, were indicted in April 2016 on second-degree murder charges, but both took plea deals, pleading to manslaughter. Jaylin Kema broke her silence in December and agreed to testify against her husband. He agreed to show police where he disposed of the boy’s body and to take a polygraph test if the remains were not found.
Jaylin Kema walked into the courtroom Tuesday with a prosthetic leg and accompanied by her chihuahua. In 2016 she was rolled into the courtroom in a wheelchair due to her partially amputated leg.
“I know I deserve the punishment of imprisonment,” she told the judge. “For far too long I kept the secret of the abuse of my children, especially Peter Boy, and I kept the secret of how he died.
“My health problems and my everyday life is difficult, but nothing as compared to the pain that Peter Boy endured while I did nothing,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion.
“I pray that one day my family will be able to forgive me enough for what I have done and begin to have a positive relationship with me,” she said. “I have caused my children to live in the nightmare, and I denied them a healthy childhood.
“I’m so very sorry, Alan, Chauntelle, Peter Boy and Lina, and that I have disappointed you, but I am very proud of you growing up.”
She addressed her father and now-deceased mother: “I thank you for helping them when they needed me the most and I was not there for them.”
The judge said he grappled with whether to follow the plea deal. He understood she too was abused. “However, what’s been difficult for the court to understand is how you as a mother did not protect or seek medical help for your other children, specifically Peter Boy,” he said. “You weren’t there to protect them.”
Her failure to come forward for years “affected family, law enforcement and the entire community as Peter Boy’s disappearance became a statewide concern,” the judge said, but concluded the plea agreement brings a sense of closure for her family and the community.
Her lawyer, Brian De Lima, said many will say the agreement is too lenient.
“Jaylin Kema has been in prison and will remain emotionally in prison by the choices she made from the day that Peter Boy was abused and died and for the rest of her life.”
He said his client intends to divorce Peter Kema Sr. and has not contacted him.
The judge also sentenced Jaylin Kema to four years’ probation, to run concurrently with the 10 years, for second-degree theft in a welfare fraud case. She was ordered to pay $16,687 restitution.
She has no job skills and has health problems, so a hearing is set for June 14, 2018, to determine her ability to begin paying restitution.
A search for Peter Boy’s remains continues on Hawaii island in Puna, where Peter Kema Sr. said he threw the body into the ocean after trying to burn it. A polygraph exam will be scheduled before his sentencing in July.
