A 9-year-old developmentally disabled Hilo girl starved to death by her parents and grandmother eight years ago was on the radar of Child Welfare Services almost from birth.
Shaelynn Lehano-Stone died June 28, 2016, mere hours after police and emergency medical services found her emaciated and unconscious in a Kinoole Street apartment almost directly across from the Hilo Central Fire Station.
The apartment was the home of her maternal grandmother, Henrietta Stone, now 66, and the girl’s biological parents, 57-year-old Kevin Lehano and 40-year-old Tiffany Stone.
In a case marked with similarities to that of Peter Boy Kema Jr. — arguably Hawaii’s most notorious child abuse and homicide case — Lehano Stone had been removed from the custody of her parents and placed in foster care at least four times in her short life.
Like “Peter Boy,” Lehano-Stone repeatedly was returned to abusive parents.
The Tribune-Herald has learned the first time Lehano-Stone was taken from her parents was in September 2006, the same month she was born, due to “safety concerns” that weren’t specified. She was returned to her parents in June 2007, nine months later, under CWS supervision. The child would be removed again in September 2007 and returned a month later, again under the supervision of CWS.
In January 2009, Lehano-Stone, then a toddler, was taken from her parents a third time and placed in foster care for “failure to thrive and malnutrition” after she lost 4 pounds in two years. The family was provided with services including parenting education and domestic violence prevention classes.
In August 2011, the girl was reunited again with her parents but was hospitalized in the fall that year for injuries. Shortly thereafter, Tiffany Stone ceded custody of Shaelynn to Stone’s mother, Henrietta Stone, via a power of attorney. A court granted custody of the girl to Henrietta Stone on Jan. 28, 2012, and ruled the child should remain with her grandmother, terminating Family Court jurisdiction on May 2, 2013.
In August, 2014, after receiving a report of possible neglect or abuse by Lehano-Stone’s parents and grandparents, CWS referred the case to voluntary case management. According to documents, CWS had face-to-face assessment of Kevin Lehano and Tiffany Stone, but was unable to arrange a sit-down with Henrietta Stone, who had legal custody of the child.
According to the July 13, 2017, second-degree murder indictment of Lehano and the Stones, starting on or about Oct. 23, 2015, the trio began to systematically deprive the girl of food, water and medical care, causing her death eight months later.
Henrietta Stone on Nov. 15, 2015, pulled Shaelynn from Hilo Union School after completing a one-page homeschooling application, effectively removing the child from public view.
The girl’s two older siblings, who also were in the CWS system, are now in adoptive homes.
All three defendants pleaded no contest to manslaughter in exchange for prosecutors dropping the murder charge.
Both Tiffany Stone and Lehano received 10 years of probation when sentenced separately in 2021. Both were immediately released from custody because they had served more than twice the maximum of two years of incarceration for a probation sentence while in pretrial custody, each unable to make $100,000 bail.
Henrietta Stone held out, but after being found fit to stand trial for murder, entered her no contest manslaughter plea on Feb. 6 this year.
She was originally scheduled to be sentenced on April 16, but sentencing was delayed, first to May 14 and then to June 25 because a presentencing investigation report was unfinished.
Court-appointed defense counsel Stanton Oshiro was granted two additional continuances, on June 25 and on Tuesday, when he sought additional documentation he told the court he needed to argue his case at sentencing — which is now set for Sept. 12 before Hilo Circuit Judge Henry Nakamoto.
Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Hashizaki intends to argue for the maximum 20-year prison term, while Oshiro is free to argue for the same probation sentence Lehano and Tiffany Stone received.
On Tuesday, for the second time, Oshiro asked that his client — who remains in custody at Hawaii Community Correctional Center on $100,000 bail — be freed “on some form of release, whether it’s supervised release or home arrest, something.”
Hashizaki noted Oshiro’s previous request and told the judge there remains “no good cause for the court to consider release of Ms. Stone.”
“She’s facing the manslaughter charge, and the sentence would give her reason, I guess, to not come back to court or flee the jurisdiction,” he said.
“There’s no significant change since last time, so I’ll maintain the bail,” Nakamoto replied.
A civil suit filed in 2018 by Shaelynn Lehano-Stone’s maternal aunt, Tina Marie Kasten — who represents the deceased girl’s estate — remains active against the state, Lehano and both Stones. It is on hold, however, pending conclusion of the criminal proceedings.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
