A missing Waipahu woman’s ex-husband, who was sentenced in 1988 to life in prison for the attempted murder of a 24-year-old Moiliili woman, was arrested Friday for violating terms of his parole.
Officers arrested him at his Kapolei townhouse.
Lonnell Reginald Wideman, 48, had been questioned by police earlier this week regarding the disappearance of ex-wife Loida Gabon Wideman, but police maintain he is not a suspect in that case.
Loida Wideman, 39, of Waipahu remained missing Friday.
Hawaii Paroling Authority Administrator Tommy Johnson said a warrant for Lonnell Wideman’s arrest was issued Friday for violating parole because he failed to tell his parole officer that police served him with a temporary restraining order in 2011 for allegedly sexually assaulting a Kapolei woman, nor did he relay that police questioned him this week.
Police found Loida Wideman’s car Wednesday parked along a Pearl City street but have found no trace of her since she vanished on Mother’s Day evening after leaving home for work, leaving behind her three school-age sons.
Asked whether he was concerned with how his attempted-murder conviction would be viewed in connection with his wife’s disappearance, Lonnell Wideman told the Star-Advertiser Wednesday, "That’s the furthest thing from my mind. I’m not thinking about my past. I’m thinking about my three sons."
Wideman said of his ex-wife’s disappearance, "I’m just at a loss for words. It’s just unbelievable."
He said he went to work Tuesday night but couldn’t concentrate on work and was allowed to go home.
Wideman said he had no idea what happened to his ex-wife. He said she did not have a boyfriend and did not seem unhappy.
"We’re fine," Wideman said of their relationship.
Parole officials said they were unaware of the temporary restraining order against him until this week because it does not show up on information provided by the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center, and the woman did not press charges against Lonnell Wideman, Johnson said.
In that case, Lonnell allegedly sodomized a 60-year-old Kapolei woman with whom he was living, a court document says.
After the TRO expired, a family court judge granted the woman’s request on Aug. 8, 2011, for a 10-year protective order against Wideman due to expire in 2021.
The woman alleged in court documents that Wideman sodomized her on June 5, 2011, because "he was mad because I refused to give him my dead son(‘s) birth certificate so he can forge a passport to go to the Philippines to see his daughter."
"He asked his parol(e) officer if he can go he said no," she states. "He asked me this two week(s) before this happen(ed)."
On Nov. 17, 2009, the Paroling Authority granted Wideman parole on his attempted-murder sentence. He was released on Jan. 26, 2010, from Halawa Correctional Facility, where he had been serving a life sentence for the May 25, 1985, attempted murder of a 24-year-old Moiliili woman.
In that case, Wideman forced his way into the woman’s apartment in a women’s dormitory at 2734 S. King St., court documents say. He pushed her onto her bed, tried to choke her with a blouse and attempted to suffocate her with a pillow.
A Circuit Court jury found him guilty in 1988 of attempted murder, first-degree burglary, kidnapping and possession of a switchblade knife. He was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.
Court documents filed by the state note the similarities of that case to a subsequent crime four months later in which Wideman broke into a 19-year-old woman’s apartment in the same dormitory. After a struggle he forced her onto her bed and began to choke her.
Wideman was convicted in 1986 of second-degree robbery for the Sept. 7, 1985, crime involving the 19-year-old woman.
Wideman was initially released on parole Oct. 28, 1997, for the attempted-murder case, but his parole was revoked and he was returned to custody Oct. 4, 2007, after he was found guilty of numerous parole violations, Johnson said, which included an unauthorized trip to the Philippines.
Loida Wideman’s brother, Junior Gabon, said she did not know about Lonnell Wideman’s criminal history while he was courting her.
The couple has three sons, ages 5, 7 and 11.
They married on July 22, 2005, divorce papers show.
Loida Wideman filed for divorce in February 2008, four months after he was re-incarcerated.
She was awarded sole custody of their three sons, and he was allowed visitation rights.
Wideman tried to prevent her husband from selling their Kapolei townhouse, and the two agreed to put the property in a trust for their three sons, divorce papers show.
Before her disappearance, Wideman worked two jobs as a certified nurse’s assistant at a Kapolei nursing home and providing foster care to two adult patients at the Waipahu house she shared with her mother.
Lonnell Wideman had lived with the Kapolei woman in 2011, but at some point he moved back into the Kapolei townhouse.
