More than 10 years after being arrested in connection with the shooting death of a homeless man on the Hilo Bayfront, a former Pahoa High School teacher was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years of probation.
In the evening of Dec. 29, 2012, 32-year-old Faafetai Fiu, a father of three, was found dead by the Bayfront with multiple gunshot wounds. A police investigation, centered around a vehicle that was witnessed leaving the scene, eventually led to the arrest of Mark Anthony Whyne in Feb. 2013 on a second-degree murder charge and various firearm offenses.
But Whyne, who was once a special education teacher at Pahoa High, was found unfit to stand trial in Dec. 2013 and was committed to Hawaii State Hospital on Oahu.
In 2015, Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara reversed that decision, ordering Whyne to stand trial, only for the trial date to repeatedly slip further away throughout the next eight years.
Finally, in April of this year, a now-65-year-old Whyne entered a deal to plead no contest to a reduced charge of manslaughter and on Tuesday, Hilo Circuit Judge Henry Nakamoto sentenced Whyne for the nearly 11-year-old shooting.
At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney recommended a “term of incarceration” for Whyne’s sentence, in order to reflect the seriousness of the offense. She drew Nakamoto’s attention to Fiu’s three children — one of whom may have witnessed the shooting, according to court documents — and that Fiu was found to have been shot eight times.
Meanwhile, Whyne’s attorney Stanton Oshiro argued that a term of probation would be more appropriate considering the facts of the case.
“We don’t quite know what happened,” Oshiro said. “It’s something I call ‘defective self-defense. (Whyne) believed he was acting in self-defense, but it ended up not meeting the conditions of self-defense.’”
Oshiro added that while Whyne had a history of mental health issues, he did not have any prior criminal record — not even any traffic offenses, Oshiro noted — and was therefore not likely to re-offend.
Nakamoto agreed that the specific circumstances of the case are still unclear, and reiterated the basic facts of the incident: Fiu reportedly had a drunken argument with his wife and left to approach a man fishing near a silver sedan at the bayfront, whereupon an unseen confrontation took place. A man was heard loudly warning another person to get away, followed by a series of gunshots and the sedan driving away.
Based on this series of events, Nakamoto concluded that Whyne, having been approached at night by a belligerent man, seemed to have acted under “strong provocation,” and that, even though the results were extreme, probation was an appropriate sentence.
Whyne was given an opportunity to speak on his own behalf, but didn’t address the circumstances of the case at all. Instead, he briefly recalled a moment in his childhood when he heard former President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address in 1961 — the famous “ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country” speech — and said he has since tried to live his life following that maxim.
“No matter what you sentence me to, I am not your enemy,” Whyne said. “I am still a loyal citizen of the United States of America.”
Nakamoto then issued a sentence of 10 years of probation, during which time Whyne is not permitted to own any firearms or ammunition. The firearm charges were dismissed.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.