A Kona man sentenced to up to a half-decade behind bars for a 2019 shooting that injured one and triggered an 11-day manhunt was granted parole by the Hawaii Paroling Authority on Wednesday.
Kona Circuit Court Judge Robert D.S. Kim sentenced Walter Gomes III in 2020 to serve concurrent five-year terms for second-degree assault and two counts first-degree resisting an order to stop a motor vehicle in connection with the series of events that began March 20, 2019, when a woman showed up at Kona Community Hospital with a gunshot wound to her face.
Hawaii Police Department officers first ran into Gomes the following day by Costco in Kailua-Kona. After refusing commands, police said officers opened fire when Gomes reportedly drove at them.
After fleeing, officers encountered Gomes two more times in North Kohala where officers discharging weapons in both incidents, including near Old Camp 17 Road when he crashed into a subsidized police vehicle. After that, Gomes disappeared into the North Kohala brush.
While there were reported sightings of Gomes, he wasn’t officially seen until days later on March 31, 2019, in Captain Cook, where he was taken into custody without incident and later charged with 15 counts to which he pleaded not guilty.
In early April 2020, Gomes pleaded no contest to second-degree assault and two counts first-degree resisting an order to stop a motor vehicle. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors agreed to drop 12 of the charges initially filed against Gomes, including three Class B and three Class C felonies.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Annaliese Wolfe during sentencing recommended the judge hand down concurrent five-year sentences per the plea agreement meted.
In her argument against probation, Wolfe said Gomes’ conduct caused “serious and significant harm” to the victim, as well as the public “as he fled from police on numerous occasions.” She added the crimes occurred despite him nearing the end of probation for a 2014 case.
“He accepts responsibility and he wants to take advantage of whatever programs he can to get back out,” said Gomes’ attorney Keith Shigetomi at sentencing.
Gomes at the time said “a lot of people have this whole case twisted about what happened” stating that he was being robbed. “There’s no talk about me at gunpoint,” he said.
Gomes was credited 15 months for time served at the time his sentence was handed down in early July 2020.
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On March 31, the Hawaii Paroling Authority granted parole to Nicholas Abarcar after serving less than a year of a five-year sentence for a 2019 crash that claimed the life of a mother of four and injured three girls.
Nicholas Abarcar was sentenced in May 2021 by Kona Circuit Court Judge Robert D.S. Kim to serve five years for second-degree negligent homicide and concurrent one-year sentences for three counts of second-degree negligent injury in connection with the Nov. 10, 2019, crash that killed 35-year-old Cassandra “Cassie” Lynn Ellis, of Kailua-Kona, and injured her three passengers, all who were younger than age 18.
