A 24-year-old Pahoa man accused of fatally shooting a Honomu couple’s pet horse in September has asked for a jury trial in the case.
Marc Lorenzo Agpawa Jr. appeared Thursday before Hilo Circuit Judge Henry Nakamoto, but didn’t enter a plea to two misdemeanor charges, second-degree reckless endangering and night hunting on private land.
Agpawa’s case was moved from Hilo District Court to the higher court after Agpawa requested a jury trial during a hearing on July 21. Trials in District Court are all bench trials, with the verdict decided by the judge.
A petty misdemeanor charge of hunting without a license that Agpawa faced in District Court didn’t carry over to Circuit Court.
Agpawa’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Megan Fellows, didn’t request a trial date at Thursday’s hearing, which was originally scheduled for arraignment and plea.
Instead, she asked for a “further proceedings” hearing, which Nakamoto scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Oct. 3.
Agpawa, who didn’t speak during the brief hearing, is accused of killing Onyx, a Friesian mare belonging to Craig Burkholder and Hal Fansler, on the couple’s Honomu property.
The apparently accidental shooting of the horse, which had a 3-month-old foal, occurred in the late night of Sept. 18, 2022, or early the next morning.
According to police, the mare died after sustaining a single gunshot wound.
Agpawa reportedly had been helping Fansler and Burkholder’s neighbors rid their property of feral swine — and allegedly shot into the victims’ property after mistaking the horse for a pig in the dark.
Nakamoto ordered Agpawa to not possess any firearms or ammunition, and to turn in any firearms or ammunition in his possession to the Hawaii Police Department within 48 hours.
Misdemeanor charges carry a potential one-year jail term.
Agpawa, who has no prior criminal record, is free on his own recognizance, a form of cashless bail.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.