“I failed to protect my son.”
“I failed to protect my son.”
With those words, a tearful Jaylin Kema pleaded guilty to manslaughter Thursday morning in the death of her 6-year-old son, Peter Kema Jr. Her son, known as “Peter Boy,” went missing in 1997. His body has not been found.
Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara asked Kema if her actions “recklessly caused the death” of Peter Boy, who became the statewide poster child for missing and abused children.
“Yes,” Kema replied.
Peter Kema Sr., the boy’s father, still faces a second-degree murder charge in his son’s death. His trial is scheduled to start Jan. 23 before Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura, but Deputy Prosecutor Rick Damerville told Hara his trial will likely be postponed until April to allow Kema Sr.’s defense lawyers to prepare their case given his wife’s manslaughter plea and her agreement to testify against him at trial.
The judge said that in return for Kema’s plea, the state has agreed to sentence her to 10 years probation with one year in jail, with sentencing to take place after her husband’s trial. If she is not sentenced by April 27 she will be freed on supervised release with electronic monitoring and will give a videotaped pretrial deposition, if needed. That date will mark a year of incarceration, as she and Kema Sr. were arrested on April 28, 2016, after being indicted by a Hilo grand jury for murder.
Jaylin Kema, who also pleaded guilty to second-degree theft for unlawfully receiving more than $18,000 in food stamps, faces a possible 20 years on the manslaughter charge and five years on the theft charge if she fails to live up to her end of the plea deal.
Damerville told the judge Peter Boy probably died from septic shock due to an infected and festering wound on his arm caused by abuse from Kema Sr. He said Peter Boy’s siblings said Jaylin Kema cleaned the wound with hydrogen peroxide and iodine, and gave the boy medicine in his milk.
“We don’t know exactly what kind of medicine was being given to him. It was probably some form of antibiotic,” Damerville said. “But for many antibiotics, delivering it in milk product would likely interfere with the effectiveness of the antibiotic.”
Damerville said the family had medical insurance coverage on the boy, but that Jaylin Kema, who “as a parent had a duty and opportunity to safely obtain medical treatment” for the boy didn’t do so “in part … because she was a chronically abused spouse, but the circumstances were such that she had many opportunities to report the abuse of herself and her children but and not do so.”
An updated story will appear in Friday’s edition of the Tribune-Herald.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.