A state judge heard two widely different descriptions of a woman who died of multiple stab wounds to her head and body while confined to her bed with a leg injury.

One, from her biological relatives, described Jolyn Sakae Kipapa as a beautiful, caring mother who loved children. The other, from the adopted son who admitted killing her, described Kipapa as an abusive, controlling and violent tyrant who treated her foster and adopted children like animals.

Circuit Judge Todd Eddins said based on the reports of psychiatrists who examined the adopted son and statements from all relatives, including Kipapa’s widower, the woman he later married and other children who Jolyn Kipapa had fostered and adopted, he believes both descriptions are accurate.

Eddins on Tuesday sentenced the adopted son, Ka‘Ano‘i Iz Kipapa, to eight years in prison for manslaughter.

Kipapa already has served nearly five years of the sentence.

Deputy Public Defender Crystal Glendon told Eddins that Jolyn Kipapa had Ka‘Ano‘i beaten daily from the time he was a young child.

“She ordered this violence to happen. And if it wasn’t her doing it, she ordered her (biological) sons or her many foster children to do it to each other,” Glendon said.

Ka‘Ano‘i Kipapa said getting beaten was normal, the reason didn’t matter, if there was even a reason.

“I pushed all my anger and hatred down because there was nothing else I could do,” he said.

Since killing his mother, Kipapa said it has taken him a long time to reflect on what he did and why.

“I honestly don’t know what came over me that day. I remember what I did, it’s like I was watching someone else doing it,” he said.

Eddins said when the state agreed to allow Ka‘Ano‘i Kipapa to plead guilty to manslaughter instead of murder, it acknowledged that he was suffering from an extreme mental or emotional disturbance when he killed his mother.

Glendon said Jolyn Kipapa spared her biological children from beatings and treated her other kids like slaves. When she broke her leg two years before her death it got worse for Ka‘Ano‘i, who had to sleep on the floor of her bedroom with only a jacket or tiny blanket, wake up at 2:30 a.m. to start cleaning the house, bathe her, dress her and help her go to the bathroom.

She said Ka‘Ano‘i wasn’t the only foster or adopted Kipapa child to get beaten, but that he got it the worst. Glendon said the beatings were the worst-kept secret in Waimanalo but nobody reported it to authorities. She said Jolyn Kipapa kept Ka‘Ano‘i home from school for 57 days of the 2013-2014 school year because of his injuries.

Kipapa was 16 years old when he killed his mother. A state Family Court judge waived the court’s jurisdiction over him allowing the state to charge him as an adult with murder. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter in February in a deal with the prosecutor.

The normal prison sentence for manslaughter is 20 years. Eddins sentenced Ka‘Ano‘i to the eight-year prison term under state sentencing laws that allow judges to impose lower penalties for defendants who were 21 years old or younger when they committed their crimes. Eddins noted that Ka‘Ano‘i had no prior criminal offenses and has been cooperative and compliant while incarcerated.

Jolyn Kipapa’s biological daughter Kurlyn Kipapa said her mother was strict with her children for their own good. She asked Eddins to impose the 20-year prison term because of the heinous manner in which her adopted brother killed their mother.

“As the death certificate describes, my mom was chopped, not stabbed a few times, but chopped,” she said.

Deputy Prosecutor Wayne Tashima said the handle on the first knife Ka‘Ano‘i used broke, so he grabbed a second. The blade to the second knife broke off inside Jolyn Kipapa’s body so Ka‘Ano‘i resumed the attack with a cleaver.