A former San Diego man who came under scrutiny after the body of his wife was found buried in a California desert in 2007 lost his bid Tuesday to have an unrelated theft conviction on Oahu erased from his record.
Anthony Simoneau, 44, is on probation after pleading guilty in August 2011 to felony theft for stealing a $395 piece of luggage from Nordstrom.
Circuit Judge Michael Wilson denied Simoneau’s request Tuesday to grant him a deferral of his guilty plea, which would remove the charge from his record if he stays out of trouble for a specified period. Wilson told him to return in six months for another probation review hearing.
It was the fourth time Wilson denied the request from Simoneau. Wilson sentenced Simoneau in October 2011 to five years’ probation.
Simoneau told Wilson he doesn’t want to return to court because every time he does, the news media, including reporters from Japan, hound him.
"I just feel if we keep doing hearings and hearings and hearings, I’m going to have to go through this same scrutiny that I feel is unjustified," Simoneau said Tuesday. "So please, your honor, I just don’t want to go through this anymore."
On Tuesday at least two news teams representing Japanese media waited outside the courtroom along with local reporters, but Simoneau avoided them by leaving through a different exit.
Simoneau drew the interest of Japanese media in 2010 after authorities in California, using DNA evidence, identified the decomposed body of a woman found in a shallow grave in a desert outside San Diego in 2007 as that of Simoneau’s Japanese-born wife, Fumiko.
Simoneau had never reported his wife missing.
No one has been charged with any crimes in connection with Fumiko Simoneau’s death.
Japanese media converged in Hawaii last year after Honolulu police arrested Simoneau in May for stealing luggage from Nordstrom.
