Hokuokalani Patoc escaped a possible life sentence without parole.

The 40-year-old was on trial for first-degree attempted murder in the Feb. 16 attack on a police officer in Laie, but an Oahu Circuit Court jury found him guilty Friday of the lesser crime of first-degree assault.

The jury of six men and six women also found him guilty as charged of first- degree unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle and second-degree resisting an order to stop motor vehicle.

Patoc could have been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole had he been convicted of first- degree attempted murder, an offense that includes attempting to intentionally or knowingly cause the death of a law enforcement officer while performing his official duties.

Although the first-degree assault charge, a Class B felony, has a penalty of 10 years, jurors must return Tuesday for the sentencing phase and will determine whether Patoc should be subject to an extended term of imprisonment.

Judge Paul Wong said that in order to do so, the state must prove that he is a multiple offender and necessity for the protection of the public.

Wong set the hearing for 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Jurors will learn Patoc has no prior criminal convictions.

The defendant was unrecognizable in court from his mug shot, which showed him disheveled, his face bloodied with a contusion to his forehead.

He appeared clean-shaven with his hair tied back in a ponytail.

Deputy Public Defender Reiko Bryant and Deputy Prosecutor Lawrence Sousie declined comment after the verdict.

Patoc’s supporters also declined comment.

On Feb. 16, police responded to a reported road rage incident at 5 a.m. in Laie and found Patoc standing next to his Toyota 4Runner in the middle of the road on Iosepa Street.

Patoc was armed with a foot-long metal tool. He used it to strike police officer Nakia Newton twice in the back of the head, then drove off in Newton’s subsidized vehicle.

Newton’s injuries were diagnosed as “serious, and substantial bodily injury, which created a substantial risk of death.”

He had bleeding to the brain, skull fractures and a scalp laceration.

The stolen Ford Explorer was spotted heading north on Kamehameha Highway along the North Shore, in Wahiawa, then heading south on the H-2 freeway. Patoc was spotted speeding at 80 mph and disregarded a red signal near the Joseph P. Leong Highway.

Police followed Patoc but ended the pursuit at 5:40 a.m. in Wahiawa.

Patoc eventually stopped the Explorer in front of Iolani Palace. After a brief struggle, police arrested him at about 7 a.m.

Prior to the Feb. 16 attack on the officer, Patoc was extremely unstable, his ex-wife alleged in a petition for protection filed Feb. 22 in Family Court.

Ex-wife Elizabeth Diamond said in the petition that two of their four children told her that Patoc said that “something was following them, the car was talking to him” on Feb. 9, when the children went to his home.

One of their daughters spoke to a school official about her father and about what he told her, and the school’s officials were concerned for the safety of the Patoc children as well as those at the school.

On Feb. 14, two days prior to the police attack, Patoc allegedly was found trespassing at a school.

Diamond sought temporary prohibition of visitation with the children, and mental health and drug abuse treatment and rehab and anger management for Patoc.

The trial judge of his own accord on July 24 ordered a determination of mental fitness.

On Oct. 23, Judge Ronald Johnson, after reviewing the reports of mental health examiners, found Patoc fit to proceed to trial.