A 25-year-old Pahoa man was sentenced to a year of probation and 100 hours of community service Tuesday for fatally shooting a Honomu couple’s pet horse.
Marc Agpawa pleaded no contest to night hunting on private lands, a misdemeanor. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped a charge of second-degree reckless endangering, also a misdemeanor.
Hilo Circuit Judge Henry Nakamoto also sentenced Agpawa to five days in jail, which Agpawa won’t have to serve if he complies with other terms of his probation. In addition to the community service, Agpawa will be required to complete a firearms safety course and have no contact with the complainants, Craig Burkholder and Hal Fansler.
The apparently accidental shooting of Onyx, Burkholder and Fansler’s 17-year-old Friesian/Percheron mare — which had a 12-week-old foal, Uhane — 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.
Agpawa didn’t address the court on his own behalf Tuesday when presented the opportunity.
There will be a restitution hearing to determine what Agpawa will have to pay the couple.
“That will be for the loss of the horse as well as the veterinarian bill incurred by the victims for the foal,” Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Hashizaki told the Tribune-Herald.
A Friesian/Percheron cross can sell for $25,000 or more.
Fansler addressed the court with a prepared victim impact statement, in which he said Agpawa’s decision to shoot in the darkness “changed our world forever.”
“We will never know exactly when or why he chose to illegally pull the trigger that night,” Fansler said in his statement. “Was he shooting blindly in the dark at a sound? Did he know exactly what he was shooting at because it was a ‘slow night for pigs?’ We will never know the truth. We will never know how anyone with even the most basic cognitive ability could confuse an 8-foot horse with a 2-foot pig.
“He will never be honest about the sound she made when hit by his bullet or the sound she made when her 2,000-pound weight collapsed in the field. In that silent night in the field, could he hear her final breaths? Could he hear her frantic baby circle her in confusion?”
Afterward, Fansler said there’s “no real justice” in the verdict or the sentence.
“What we were told all along does not really effect justice for what we lost,” he said. “The worst charge was second-degree reckless endangerment. They negotiated that away. So he was only charged with night hunting.
“His record will go down as illegally night hunting, not reckless endangering.
“To us, words matter, so we’re very, very disappointed that they chose to hold back on that charge.”
According to Burkholder, Onyx’s foal, Uhane — now a year-and-a-half old filly — is “doing very well” due to love and excellent medical care.
Burkholder said he struggles with “the lack of accountability and responsibility for the actions of disrupting our lives.”
“There was no apology. There was no sense of ‘a sincere sorry’ for what we continue to go through,” he said. “Maybe he doesn’t know that we continue to go through grief counseling because of how upsetting this whole situation has been.
“Just the excuses upon excuses shows a lack of caring for our animals and us.”
Both expressed their gratitude for what Burkholder called “the kindness of the community,” including donations to a GoFundMe account, still open, entitled “Justice for Onyx and Care for Uhane.” As of Tuesday, the account had raised $9,626 of a $30,000 goal.
The kindness referred to also includes “messages to us and letters that were left at the post office,” Burkholder said.
“We felt a lot of support from the community, so we do appreciate that kindness from the community. It will never be forgotten by us.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.