She was gunned down nearly seven years ago as her 2-year-old son watched along a dirt track in a secluded part of the Big Island.

The killer, who was an ex-boyfriend and the boy’s father, fired a single fatal shot into the back of Daysha Aiona-Aka’s head.

No one but the boy witnessed the gruesome crime.

Jeffrey Boyd Santos Jr. eventually was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, and the Hawaii Paroling Authority in 2008 set Santos’ minimum sentence at 100 years — one of the longest in Hawaii for a second-degree murder conviction.

But because the 2008 board didn’t follow proper procedures in specifying why it deviated from sentencing guidelines, as Hawaii law permits, Santos asked for a hearing to set a new minimum. The current board has scheduled that hearing for Thursday.

Members of Aiona-Aka’s family are upset that the case is resurfacing, stirring up bad memories as they continue to struggle in the aftermath of the 2006 murder. The possibility that Santos could get a reduced minimum sentence has the family particularly worried.

"I’m shocked, upset, confused," said Cassie Kamai, 33, Daysha’s sister, in a phone interview from Hilo, where Daysha’s son, Dayson Akimseu, is being raised by his great-grandparents. "This will affect our whole family. Right now, we’re trying hard to move on with our lives."

Aiona-Aka, 21, was trying to move on with her life in 2006 when she broke off a volatile, sometimes violent six-year relationship with Santos, who was almost two years older.

Throughout much of that relationship, Aiona-Aka kept a diary and frequently wrote about the abuse she suffered at her boyfriend’s hands.

"He’s like a changing chameleon, like a vampire, it’s horrifying, and I don’t want my son around it," Aiona-Aka wrote in one July 2005 entry. "It’s been five years and all this abusing hasn’t stopped. Not even when I was pregnant, not even when he was in anger management class … I’ve got to say that he hits me like every other day. I’ll be lucky if I last two or three days without getting hit or getting my hair pulled."

Her personal accounts — gripping, tragic, heart-warming, enlightening — were prominently featured in a seven-part series that ran in The Honolulu Advertiser in 2008 and provided an unusual, unvarnished glimpse into the dynamics of domestic abuse as the abuse unfolded. Her writing helped put a face to a growing domestic violence problem in Hawaii.

Nearly seven years after Aiona-Aka’s death, family members say they’re still haunted by what happened on that November day, though they contend they’ve made good progress.

Hilo residents Bev and Tommy Akimseu, Aiona-Aka’s grandparents, have since adopted Dayson, now 9, and the family says he’s doing well, all things considered.

The couple changed the boy’s name from Day’Rey (a combination of "Daysha" and "Jeffrey") to Dayson (a combination of "Daysha" and "son"). He enjoys school, and this year the fourth-grader was named to his baseball league all-star team, according to family members. Dayson plays first base and catcher and also likes basketball.

As Dayson has gotten older, the questions about his mother have become more frequent, said Bev Akimseu, 64.

"She’s always on his mind," Akimseu said. "He really, really misses her."

Recently, Dayson was mowing the lawn at their Hilo home when he abruptly stopped and called to Akimseu. When she went to him, the boy asked whether he would have died or remained alive if he still was "in mommy’s tummy" when she got shot, Akimseu said.

The other night, she added, Dayson told her it’s rough not having a mother around.

Though Dayson doesn’t suffer from nightmares, his demeanor can change abruptly. At school during the day or at home at night, he sometimes will start crying suddenly, Akimseu said.

"He thinks a lot about Daysha."

Akimseu said she, her husband and Dayson continue to get regular counseling to cope with what happened. She said she plans to be at Thursday’s hearing to speak to the parole board about the struggles her family still faces.

Santos told police he shot Aiona-Aka once in the head with a .22-caliber pistol as their toddler son looked on and then put her body in her nearby 2003 Mazda, which he later set on fire.

Moments before the shooting, Aiona-Aka had told Santos that she was happy with her new boyfriend, rebuffed Santos’ plea to reconcile and began walking away from him, according to police records.

At that point, Santos pulled out his pistol and shot her once in the head, he told police.

"I couldn’t picture her with nobody else but me," he confessed to a detective.

Santos pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and using a firearm in the commission of a felony. The court set a mandatory minimum of 15 years for the murder charge.

But the parole board had the authority to set a higher minimum if it determined one was justified. The board in 2008 decided a century was warranted. For the firearm count, Santos received 20 years with no mandatory minimum.

Santos already has challenged the 100-year minimum in a case pending in Circuit Court.

His attorney, Brian De Lima, argued in court papers that the parole board violated its guidelines, which called for a minimum between 20 and 50 years.

By setting the minimum at 100 years, the board essentially gave Santos a life sentence without the possibility of parole, akin to a first-degree murder sentence, and by doing so, usurped the authority of the Legislature and the court, he told the Star-Advertiser.

Tommy Johnson, paroles and pardon administrator for the board, said the paroling authority has the power to exceed the guidelines as long as it states the reasons for doing so.

Mike Kagami, deputy prosecutor for Hawaii County, said his office is asking the board to set 75 years as Santos’ new minimum. Kagami, who prosecuted Santos, couldn’t recall what his office requested when the board originally took up the case in 2008.

The 75 years is justified because Santos murdered Aiona-Aka in front of their 2-year-old son and because the circumstances indicated the killing was premeditated and deliberate, Kagami said in a phone interview.

According to parole board data from July 2011 to June 2012, the minimum sentence for eight second-degree murder cases in that period averaged nearly 42 years, with the range spanning from 30 to 50 years.

Whatever minimum term is set, Santos must serve at least a third of it before he can request a reduction in the minimum.

Santos is expected to appear at Thursday’s hearing through a video feed from the Arizona prison where he is incarcerated.

Akimseu said the prospect of seeing Santos again is unsettling, as is having to relive memories from seven years ago.

She said she was horrified when she learned her granddaughter’s killer would get a new hearing and that his minimum could be reduced.

"It’s just bringing up all these emotions within us," Akimseu said. "It’s heart-breaking. It’s just emotionally distressing."