An 86-year-old retired Pagoda Floating Restaurant waitress pleaded guilty Friday to the reduced crime of second-degree arson for setting fire Feb. 28 inside the Liliha home she had rented for 50 years.
Beverly Shimabukuro will be sentenced to four years’ probation in December, and Circuit Judge Ronald Johnson released her Friday to the custody of her younger brother, the first time in six months she was free.
She will be escorted by her brother, Stanley Kobayashi of Colorado, and a niece from New Mexico, to the Tacoma, Wash., home of her younger sister in a senior living center.
Shimabukuro received hugs from her relatives after she was released from custody.
In February, Shimabukuro, then 85, a longtime widow who lost her only child — an adult son she lived with — to illness, was facing eviction.
The landlord said she was selling the house because her late husband said it was “a fire hazard,” and gave Shimabukuro 45 days’ notice to move out by Feb. 15.
Shimabukuro told an Emergency Medical Services supervisor at the scene that she lit a small pile of items in a bedroom closet on fire and put water around the pile.
Police immediately arrested her on suspicion of first-degree arson and jailed her for more than a week in the Oahu Community Correctional Center until March 11, when the judge ordered her transferred to the Hawaii State Hospital, where she remained pending a mental fitness examination.
Her attorney, Christian Enright, requested at her arraignment that she undergo a mental health examination to determine whether she was fit to proceed to trial.
On Friday the judge noted that the letters by three mental health experts were “remarkably consistent” and indicated Shimabukuro was now fit to proceed to trial but “that she did suffer from a major depressive disorder, which was of a nature involving a single episode.”
The examiners found she had little support and assistance here.
“The court believes family support and assistance is important,” the judge said.
Johnson found she was fit to proceed and the case could move forward, and he resumed proceedings.
Deputy Prosecutor Hon-Lum Cheung-Cheng had offered a plea agreement to Shimabukuro that was initiated by the defense. The agreement includes that she go through treatment, if recommended by her probation officer, and that her term of imprisonment be equal to credit for time already served at sentencing.
The judge asked whether she accepted that plea deal and agreed to the reduced charge.
She pleaded guilty to knowingly or recklessly damaging the property of another in an amount exceeding $1,500.
Shimabukuro answered clearly, “Yes, your honor.”
And to the judge’s question, “What is your plea?” she replied, “Guilty.”
The judge bound himself to the terms of the agreement, meaning that at sentencing on Dec. 4 he will sentence her to four years’ probation, and she would be given credit for time served.
He informed her that if she violates the terms and conditions of probation, it could be revoked, and she could face the maximum penalty of 10 years in prison or a $25,000 fine.
He will take the matter of Enright’s motion for a deferred acceptance of a guilty plea, which would allow her conviction to be wiped off her record if she follows the terms of the deferral.
The judge ordered a restitution study, and the matter will be addressed at sentencing.
The judge granted an order setting aside bail.
Hawaii State Hospital social worker Arnel Gorai told the family after the hearing, “This is the best decision.”
