A 41-year-old Hilo man accused of shooting his estranged wife at close range in their upper Kaiwiki Road home last March testified Friday he is receiving inadequate care in the medical unit at Halawa Correctional Facility on Oahu.
Testifying from an Oahu courtroom via videoconference, Corey Napoleon also told Hilo Circuit Judge Henry Nakamoto that a “floor boy” — essentially an orderly in the special needs facility — sexually assaulted him. Napoleon claimed the inmate was charged with a criminal offense.
Napoleon, who is morbidly obese and bedridden, is charged with attempted second-degree murder, first-degree reckless endangering, and the use of a firearm in a commission of a separate felony.
His court-appointed attorney, Jeremy Butterfield, has filed a motion requesting Napoleon, who is in custody in lieu of $250,000 bail, be granted court-supervised release without monetary bail.
According to court documents, Napoleon shot and critically injured Miya Napoleon, also known as Miya Sagucio, then 35. She told police Corey Napoleon was sitting at the edge of the bed and fired two rounds from a black revolver. One missed and the other hit her in the right side of the lower back.
The alleged victim in the reckless endangering charge is the couple’s then-15-year-old son who, according to documents, told police that after the shots were fired, he wrestled the firearm away from his father and the gun again went off during the struggle. Neither the teen nor Corey Napoleon was hit.
A .38-caliber revolver was recovered at the scene.
Miya Napoleon has since recovered from the shooting, and a misdemeanor domestic abuse charge she faced in which Corey Napoleon was the complainant was dismissed June 13 last year.
Corey Napoleon said he weighs 450 pounds, can’t walk because of what he described as “substantial nerve damage” to his left foot and leg which has caused the limb to atrophy, and has a bedsore issue.
He said he developed MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant infection, at the prison medical unit.
“It’s a life-threatening wound,” Napoleon said. He claims the doctor at the facility has never examined the bedsore, but Napoleon is taken every couple of weeks to The Queen’s Medical Center.
Napoleon, who also has had a tracheotomy and breathes through a tube, said he suffers from sleep apnea and does not have his BIPAP, a nighttime breathing machine.
Among other complaints Napoleon aired in the hour-plus hearing is that his lawyer cannot call him at the facility, and some guards don’t allow him to call his lawyer.
Nakamoto granted a request by Butterfield to obtain more medical documents and scheduled a continued hearing at 9 a.m. Feb. 14.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.