Mom gets 1 month in jail for assaulting toddler on plane ADVERTISING Mom gets 1 month in jail for assaulting toddler on plane HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii mother must spend a month in jail and three months under home
Mom gets 1 month in jail for assaulting toddler on plane
HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii mother must spend a month in jail and three months under home confinement for assaulting her 15-month-old daughter on a flight from Alaska.
Samantha Leialoha Watanabe declined to speak during her sentencing Tuesday.
A jury convicted her of assault after last year’s trial, where prosecutors alleged she cursed at her daughter, smacked her in the head, hit her in the face with a stuffed doll and yanked out tufts of her hair.
Defense attorneys argued the allegations were fabricated by judgmental passengers who didn’t like how Watanabe looked and dressed her child.
In arguing for no jail time, public defender Alexander Silvert said Watanabe is breastfeeding her seventh child she gave birth to last month. He said she’s led a hard life of drugs and homelessness.
Institute of Hawaiian Music earns 2 nominations for CD
WAILUKU, Maui (AP) — A Maui-based program that provides students with an opportunity to study under award-winning musicians is nominated for two Na Hoku Hanohano awards.
The Institute of Hawaiian Music at the University of Hawaii Maui College was honored for its CD, “Aloha ‘Ia No ‘O Maui.” The collection of songs was nominated for Compilation Album of the Year and Hawaiian Language Performance. This year’s awards ceremony will be May 28 on Oahu.
“Aloha ‘Ia No ‘O Maui” is the institute’s second CD and features 16 students singing, mostly in Hawaiian, and playing guitar, ukulele, acoustic bass, piano and steel guitar. Keola Donaghy, the institute’s faculty director, said most of the songs are about Maui or written by performers from the island.
The two-year music program requires students to take Hawaiian language courses along with their music instruction. It launched in 2012 with a class of 27 students.
Donaghy said the program was founded by former music department head Robert Wehrman and renowned Maui slack key guitarist George Kahumoku Jr. as a mentorship program.
