The 38-year-old man who received $12.5 million from the city following injuries he suffered in a 2021 police pursuit pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges that he used a ghost gun while selling methamphetamine in Waianae.
Jonaven Perkins-Sinapati was arrested twice in May 2024 on suspicion of drug and gun charges. The city can’t get the money back despite his guilty plea to federal drug and gun crimes.
He was charged May 24 by federal criminal complaint with possession
with intent to distribute
50 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, according to federal court records.
Perkins-Sinapati entered into a plea agreement Wednesday with the U.S.
Department of Justice and pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
He was charged April 30 with both offenses by federal information.
He faces up to 10 years
in federal prison and a
$10 million fine for dealing methamphetamine and up to 15 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine on the gun charge.
Perkins-Sinapati will be sentenced at 10 a.m. Aug. 28 before U.S. District Judge Shanlyn A.S. Park.
On May 23 the Honolulu Police Department got an anonymous tip that Perkins-
Sinapati was driving a black 2017 Jaguar F-Pace sport utility vehicle and was wanted on an outstanding state warrant with a bail amount of
$1 million, according to federal court records.
Perkins-Sinapati was charged in state court
May 7, 2024, with several firearm and ammunition offenses, third-degree promoting a dangerous drug and second-degree reckless
endangering.
On May 23 an HPD officer saw the black Jaguar SUV, and a passenger throw a dark bag out of the window.
The officer recovered the bag and allegedly found
102 grams of pure
methamphetamine.
In the bag, the officer also found a loaded, homemade 9mm ghost gun pistol, seven rounds of Luger 9mm ammunition and four rounds of .40-caliber Smith and Wesson Hornady ammunition.
HPD pulled over Perkins-
Sinapati at the intersection of Farrington Highway and Lualualei Homestead Road.
The officer saw ammunition in the cup holder of the Jaguar and recovered 49 rounds from the SUV. HPD arrested Perkins-Sinapati and his passenger on suspicion of multiple state gun charges.
A fanny pack found in the car had 45 grams of methamphetamine in it and $1,721 in cash.
Perkins-Sinapati faces
enhanced penalties if convicted in state court since he has prior felony convictions for car theft, robbery and promotion of a dangerous drug.
On May 4, 2024, at about 1:13 p.m., Perkins-Sinapati fired a gun in a residential area near Ewa Makai Middle School.
The city agreed to pay $12.5 million to Perkins-
Sinapati, the driver of a car that crashed on Sept. 12, 2021, in Makaha during a pursuit by Honolulu police officers who allegedly left the scene, only to return and act as if nothing happened.
A trial has been delayed for the four Honolulu police officers accused of causing the car chase, crash and covering it up until an appeals court can rule on a claim by defense attorneys that the law the case hangs on is too vague.
Officers Joshua J.S. Nahulu, 37, Erik X.K. Smith, 25, and Jake R.T. Bartolome, 35, are free on bail after they were arrested nearly two years after the Sept. 12, 2021, incident, which left a teenager partially paralyzed and a career criminal with a traumatic brain
injury.
A fourth officer, Robert G. Lewis III, whose age was not released by the department, also faces criminal charges in connection with the crash and cover-up.
Seven officers were disciplined in connection with the incident.
Nahulu, Smith and Bartolome were terminated but filed grievances against the department. The grievance process is being held in abeyance until the criminal cases are adjudicated.
Nahulu is charged with collisions involving death or serious bodily injury for allegedly causing the crash near the corner of Farrington Highway and Orange Street that paralyzed Dayton Gouveia and left Perkins-Sinapati, driver of the white 2000 four-door Honda Civic that crashed, with a traumatic brain injury.
The Sept. 12, 2021, incident has cost taxpayers at least $24 million and is one of the most expensive civil matters in Honolulu history.
Perkins-Sinapati got
$12.5 million, and city attorneys agreed to pay $7 million to Gouveia, a teenager who was partially paralyzed in the crash.
Four other passengers who sustained injuries in the early morning crash recently settled with the city for $4.5 million. Those passengers were 17, 18, 20 and 21 years old at the time of the crash.
