Homestead lots to be awarded | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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Kauai

The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands on Saturday will award 22 lots in the Pi‘ilani Mai Ke Kai subdivision of Anahola on Kauai.

“The vacant lot award process marks a step in the right direction to fulfill our mission of returning beneficiaries to the lands,” said Jobie M. K. Masagatani, chair of the Hawaiian Homes Commission and director of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, in a news release.

A ceremony awarding the 22 lots to beneficiaries will be held at 10 a.m. at the King Kaumuali‘i Elementary School Cafeteria, with check-in at 9:30 a.m.

Saturday’s event on Kauai follows the awarding of 31 lots on Oahu in the Waimanalo homestead of Kakaina late last year, and DHHL said the focus on its vacant lot program is in response to “beneficiary requests for additional options to meet their individual family needs as well as their financial capabilities.”

DHHL said it broke ground on Pi‘ilani Mai Ke Kai, a residential project, in August 2006. The 22 lots are the last vacant lots in Phase I of the subdivision, but the department said it plans to award another 51 vacant lots in Phase II later this year.

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Man get 20 years for stabbing

The Kauai County Prosecutors office said Christopher Cruz, 34, of Eleele, was sentenced Thursday to 20 years for the 2015 stabbing of his pregnant girlfriend.

Cruz was sentenced on one count of attempted manslaughter and second-degree reckless endangering in Circuit Court by Chief Judge Randal G.B. Valenciano.

Police said that on Dec. 6, 2015, Cruz and his girlfriend, who was 28 weeks pregnant, were arguing in the parking lot of Ace Hardware in Eleele when he stabbed her in the abdomen. As a result, she went into labor and delivered the child, who later died. Cruz was holding their 2-year old daughter in his arms at the time of the stabbing.

“Prison is the only sentence sufficient to protect the community from this defendant,” prosecuting attorney Justin F. Kollar said in a news release. “This crime was shocking in its depravity. Our thoughts are with the victim, and with the child who died as a result of this crime.”