5 years for theft, vandalism of Kamehameha statue

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A 32-year-old man convicted in May of damaging the statue of King Kamehameha the Great on Hilo’s Bayfront and stealing the top portion of the statue’s bronze spear during last year’s Labor Day holiday weekend was sentenced this morning to five years in prison.

A 32-year-old man convicted in May of damaging the statue of King Kamehameha the Great on Hilo’s Bayfront and stealing the top portion of the statue’s bronze spear during last year’s Labor Day holiday weekend was sentenced this morning to five years in prison.

Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara handed down the sentence to William Roy Carroll III, who was found guilty by a jury of second- and third-degree theft and second-degree criminal property damage.

Carroll, who has been in custody at Hawaii Community Correctional Center for almost a year, will receive credit for time served.

During sentencing, the judge told Carroll he had vandalized a symbol of “significant value … cultural value.”

“I think justice has been served. I’m happy,” Robert “Bobby” Yamada II, local chapter secretary of the Kamehameha Schools alumni association, said afterwards.

See Wednesday’s Hawaii Tribune-Herald for a full story.