A March 15 Hawaii Supreme Court opinion has resulted in the delay of sentencing for Stephen Brown, who was convicted in January of the vicious 2017 North Shore murder of 51-year-old Telma Boinville.

A Circuit Court jury also found Brown guilty of kidnapping Boinville and her 8-year-old daughter, and burglary of the vacation rental, which Boinville had gone to clean and interrupted the burglary.

Brown’s court-appointed attorney, William Bagasol, told the court Wednesday that based on the subsequent March 15 Supreme Court decision in State v. Lafoga, which shares an identical issue, he could ask for a new extended term sentencing hearing, similar to a jury trial.

He said if the state continues to seek extended sentencing for Brown, then Brown should be granted a new sentencing hearing/trial as to the second-degree murder charge.

At issue is whether Circuit Judge Rowena Somerville’s jury instructions on the second-­degree murder charge were prejudicial. They are similar to the jury instructions in State v. Lafoga, that a March 15 Supreme Court opinion found were prejudicial.

After the Brown jury returned its guilty verdict Jan. 20 on all four counts, jurors were called back for an extended term jury trial on Jan 23.

On Jan. 23, Somerville said she instructed jurors on extended term sentencing based on what was applicable law at the time — Hawaii Supreme Court’s 2012 decision in State v. Keohokapu.

“In that case the Supreme Court held that when the jury must determine whether an extended term of imprisonment is necessary for the protection of the public, it is error to instruct the jury that the extended term sentence includes the possibility of parole,” she said.

So she instructed jurors regarding the second-degree murder charge, whether it is “necessary for the protection of the public to extend his sentence from a possible life term of imprisonment to a definite life term of imprisonment.”

On Jan. 24, the jury found “an extended term of imprisonment was necessary for the protection of the public, and they opted to extend defendant’s term of imprisonment to a definite life term of imprisonment.”

But the Supreme Court found the jury instructions in the Lafoga case was prejudicial and misleading, and warranted resentencing on the defendants’ extended term sentences for the attempted murder charge.

Somerville said the instructions to the jurors in the Brown case were the same as those given in Lafoga.

The convictions stand but the defendant’s life without the possibility of parole sentences do not.

“The court reasoned that a jury can only make a reasoned sentencing decision after a murder conviction if they know about the parole option,” she said.

“The court stated that the ‘possibility of parole is the only difference between an extended sentence and an ordinary sentence for second-­degree murder.’

“To make it necessary for the protection of the public binding, the jury needs to know the difference. There is no way that a jury could meaningfully make that decision without being informed of the difference between life with and life without the possibility of parole.”

Somerville ruled the convictions stand, but on the charge of murder the extended sentencing does not.

Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bell asked for a continuance to assess the state’s legal position, and whether it will seek to empanel a new jury for an extended term on the murder charge.

He said after the hearing that he will consult with Hono­lulu Prosecutor Steve Alm before filing a position on the issue.

He asked the court to have a single time for a sentencing hearing for both Brown and co-defendant Hailey Dandurand, who was tried and convicted separately of the same charges, to make it easier for survivors and interested parties.

A number of Boinville’s friends, who had been present for both lengthy trials, were in the courtroom Wednesday.

Somerville set a Dec. 6 sentencing hearing for both.

The judge will decide then whether to grant Brown a new extended term sentencing hearing, which would essentially be like another jury trial where evidence is presented.

Bell said he did not want to have to put Boinville’s daughter, who was 13 at the last trial, on the stand again. Makana Boinville Emery was 8 years old when she was bound and her mouth taped by the pair. She testified in both Dandurand and Brown’s trials that it was “the boy with green hair” and “the girl with pink hair” who tied her up in an upstairs bedroom, while her mother was stabbed and struck with multiple instruments.

Brown, whose once long, green hair had been replaced by a bun of brown hair, appeared in court Wednesday with a crew cut.