A man initially charged with attempted murder in the 2024 shooting of a boy, 16, inside a bus in Kalihi, and first-degree sexual assault and kidnapping of a 12-year-old girl in 2023 at Sand Island State Recreation Area, pleaded guilty Tuesday to lesser charges.
Johnathan Ten waived his right to trial in First Circuit Court and accepted a plea deal from the state that eliminates the possibility of a life sentence, and will likely receive a concurrent sentence of a maximum 10 years in prison.
Ten pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in the shooting of a 16-year-old Farrington High School student while he was about to exit a city bus, rather than second-degree attempted murder, which carries a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
Ten admitted that on
Aug. 9, 2024, he caused
serious bodily injury to the 16-year-old student, possessed a pistol and knowingly failed to confine the pistol to his home; and possessed a pistol while being prosecuted for the sexual assault case. Another firearm charge was dismissed.
First-degree assault and place to keep pistol charges each carry a 10-year term, while ownership or possession of a prohibited weapon has a maximum five-year term, as does third-degree sexual assault.
Ten also pleaded guilty to third-degree sexual assault, a Class C felony, for fondling a girl, instead of the first-degree sexual assault charge for the sexual assault of a minor under age 14, a Class A felony with a maximum sentence of 20 years. Kidnapping and promotion of child abuse charges were dropped.
Don’t miss out on what’s happening!
Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It’s FREE!
Judge Catherine Remigio questioned the defendant and found he knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily entered his pleas. She also advised him he will be a registered sex offender and could be deported if he is not a U.S. citizen.
The state will not seek
extended sentencing as a multiple offender or a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment.
The defendant may argue to be sentenced as a young adult defendant (up to age 22) in the shooting case.
Deputy Public Defender Edward Aquino negotiated the plea deal on Ten’s
behalf.
Ten, who has been held without bail, did not turn to look at his handful of supporters seated in the gallery after the conviction.
It is unclear whether the cases are somehow related, but it appeared from court documents filed early in the case that Ten was targeting the boy, who was taking the bus home.
Because Ten was under the age of 23 when he committed the crimes, he could be sentenced as a youthful offender when he is sentenced April 15. He was 19 at the time of the shooting on Aug. 9, 2024.
Both Deputy Prosecutor Landon Patoc, who handled the shooting case, and Deputy Prosecutor Chase Sakai, who was on the sexual assault case, declined to say why they accepted the plea agreement and dropped two Class A felony charges, deferring to the Honolulu Department of the Prosecuting Attorney’s spokeswoman, who did not respond to an email Tuesday.
Because there was no trial in either case, many questions remain unanswered, including motive for the shooting and whether the crimes were connected.
Court documents filed early in both cases provide some details.
In the sexual assault case, court documents say the 12-year-old Kawananakoa Middle School student met Ten at the Fort Street Mall Walmart.
She said during an interview at the Children’s Justice Center, Ten told her he was 16, she told him she was 14, but later admitted she was 12, and he said, “No problem.”
The girl said they exchanged phone numbers and he picked her up 5 p.m. March 25, 2023, in his Acura sedan at her home.
While driving, he allegedly touched her thighs, then grabbed her breasts, then allegedly grabbed her hand and forced it down his pants.
He then parked at Sand
Island State Recreation Area and allegedly told her to perform oral sex on him. When she refused, he grabbed her head and forcefully pushed it down.
After he threatened he would not take her home unless she did as he told her, she complied because she was afraid she would not make it home otherwise. The girl said that he used a camera to record video of her.
He was arrested at his home at the Towers at Kuhio Park at 1475 Linapuni St.
In the shooting case, the 16-year-old boy and a couple of friends caught the bus after school to the nearby Zippy’s on Mokauea Street, grabbed some food, then caught the bus home.
While at the Zippy’s restaurant, the boy said he saw suspect 1 and suspect 2 on a moped. The suspects called out to the boy, but he ignored them and got on the bus.
Court records say surveillance video showed they rode a moped through the Aloha Island Mart parking lot toward the bus.
When the bus stopped at the bus stop at 1617 Kamehameha IV Road at the intersection with School Street, the boy was ready to exit the bus through the rear doors.
When the doors opened, the boy saw suspect 1, later identified as Ten, standing in front of the doors directly in front of him.
Suspect 1 fired one shot from a handgun toward the boy. The bullet pierced his chest.
The shooter then hopped on a moped driven by suspect 2 and fled.
The 16-year-old said he didn’t know the suspects, and could not think of a motive someone would have to attack him.