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A woman who was accused of forcing her way into a stranger’s apartment and stabbing the resident multiple times before setting the resident on fire has been found guilty of assault instead of attempted murder.
Mavourneen Rombawa was charged with attempted murder, kidnapping and arson involving a 57-year-old woman at the woman’s walk-up apartment on Kamehameha IV Road on May 20, 2015. Rombawa, 39, chose to have a judge rather than a jury determine her fate.
At trial in August, the prosecutor said Rombawa tied Danita Rodrigues-Mendez to a chair, stabbed her and set the apartment on fire but no longer accused Rombawa of setting Rodrigues-Mendez on fire. Rombawa claimed that Rodrigues-Mendez had invited her in, that she stabbed Rodrigues-Mendez in self-defense and that the apartment caught on fire accidentally.
State Circuit Judge Edwin Nacino handed down his verdicts Wednesday, finding Rombawa guilty of assault instead of attempted murder, not guilty of kidnapping and guilty of arson.
The assault and arson charges each carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The state had previously served notice that it intends to seek extended sentences because Rombawa has prior felony convictions and was facing multiple new felonies. That means 20- instead of 10-year terms.
Nacino has not set a sentencing date.