Man who critically injured officer is sentenced to 16 years
Hokuokalani Patoc would have faced life imprisonment without the possibility of parole at his sentencing Friday for critically injuring a Honolulu police officer by twice striking the back of his head with a foot-long metal car jack extension in the early morning hours of Feb. 16, 2023, in Laie. But on Jan. 19 an Oahu Circuit Court jury found Patoc guilty, not of the first-degree attempted murder offense he was charged with, but of the lesser crime of first-degree assault. So instead of life without parole, Circuit Judge Paul Wong sentenced him to the maximum term allowable: 16 years in prison.