A 33-year-old Kona man was sentenced Monday to 15 additional years in prison for two escapes, including 10 years for a violent jailbreak more than two years ago at Hawaii Community Correctional Center in Hilo.
Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura handed down the sentence Monday to Ryan Jeffries-Hamar, who pleaded guilty Nov. 3 to first-degree escape, kidnapping, second-degree robbery, second-degree assault against a law enforcement officer, unlawful imprisonment, auto theft and criminal property damage for the HCCC jailbreak on Dec. 5, 2012. His 10-year sentence on those charges will run consecutively to a 5-year sentence handed down for second-degree escape for an unrelated escape from Hale Nani Correctional Facility on Aug. 14, 2012.
Both sentences will also run consecutively to the 10-year sentence Jeffries-Hamar is currently serving for burglary, theft and auto theft.
According to the state Department of Public Safety website, his scheduled release date on those charges was Oct. 18, 2017.
Police say Jeffries-Hamar and 37-year-old Jarvis Naoki Higa attacked an unarmed 63-year-old corrections officer Dec. 5, 2012, stole his keys to the facility, then drove off in the car of the facility’s law librarian, a 49-year-old woman.
According to court documents, Jeffries-Hamar told the librarian: “I won’t hurt you, just give me that keys.” Documents state the librarian, Wendy Osborne, gave Jeffries-Hamar the keys because she feared for her safety.
Osborne was unhurt in the incident but was described as “traumatized” by state Department of Public Safety Director Ted Sakai.
The guard, Roberto Paulino, was treated at Hilo Medical Center and released for face and neck injuries.
At the time of the jailbreak, Higa was awaiting trial for attempted murder, for a July 18, 2012, incident in which he allegedly shot at and missed another man in a Keaukaha apartment complex parking lot.
Jeffries-Hamar and Higa dumped the stolen car in the nearby Sunrise Ridge subdivision in Hilo, police said.
An islandwide manhunt ensued. Higa was arrested two days later in Ocean View, a remote Ka‘u community. Jeffries-Hamar was on the lam for eight days before being nabbed at a Hawaiian Beaches home.
Higa is scheduled for trial March 23 on the attempted murder charge and April 13 on charges stemming from the escape.
Higa remains in custody without bail at Halawa Correctional Facility on Oahu.
Email John Burnett at jburnett
@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
