HAWAII
Two men from the Hawaiian island of Maui were sentenced in federal court last week 
for their racially motivated attack on C.K., a white man attempting to move into their neighborhood of Kahakuloa, officials stated.
Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi, 33, was sentenced to six years and six months in prison. Levi Aki Jr., 33, was sentenced to four years and two months in prison, according to authorities.
“The defendants in this case nearly killed a man because they believed he did not belong in their neighborhood because of the color of his skin,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The law protects everyone in this country from racially motivated violence, and these sentences send a strong message that such violence will not be tolerated.”
At the sentencing hearing, the government introduced evidence that just months after his unprovoked attack on C.K., Alo-Kaonohi committed a similar attack on a white-skinned man at the Steel Horse Saloon, a bar in Wailuku, Maui.
In that attack, Alo-Kaonohi approached the victim from behind, tapped him on the shoulder and then punched him repeatedly in the head until he was unconscious.
The victim sustained a large gash on his head that required seven staples to close and suffered permanent brain damage.
“No one should suffer the violence, cover up and injustice the defendants wrought in this case,” said U.S. Attorney Clare E. Connors for the District of Hawaii. “All persons have a right to freedom from violence motivated by racial hatred, and the Department is committed to ensuring that right is protected in a court of law.”
“This horrific violence was motived by nothing other than hate,” said Special Agent in Charge Steven Merrill of the FBI Honolulu Field Office.
The evidence indicated the following:
C.K. purchased a house in Kahakuloa and decided to move there with his wife and three daughters after his wife was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and forced to retire.
When C.K. arrived in Kahakuloa, he was harassed and threatened by various Kahakuloa residents who told him things like, “This is a Hawaiian village. The only thing coming from the outside is the electricity,” and “You don’t even belong in Hawaii.”
On Feb. 13, 2014, when C.K. was unpacking his belongings with his elderly uncle, the defendants, who had never met C.K. before, stormed onto his property and demanded that he pack his things and leave, threatening to “tie [him] up and drag [him]” and make him “go missing” if he did not comply.
When C.K. replied that he owned the house, defendant Alo-Kaonohi dragged his index finger along C.K.’s jaw and told him, “Your skin is the wrong f****** color.”
Defendant Aki then picked up a roofing shovel and handed it to defendant Alo-Kaonohi, who struck C.K. in the head, opening up a bloody wound on the back of C.K.’s head.
Later on, after C.K. had already begun packing up his possessions, the defendants attacked him a second time.
During that attack, defendant Aki head-butted C.K. and struck him in the face with the shovel a second time, giving C.K. a concussion and causing him to lose consciousness.
When he came to, the defendants were kicking him in the side—kicks that broke two of his ribs.
During the second attack, one of the defendants said, “no white man is ever going to live here.”