KEALAKEKUA — A man accused of a vigilante killing last year in Kailua-Kona told a judge Monday he didn’t mean to cause the victim’s death.
Originally charged with second-degree murder, Gafatasi Napoleon, 30, of Kailua-Kona pleaded guilty to manslaughter before 3rd Circuit Chief Judge Ronald Ibarra for the death of Alanaokala Solomon Covington.
Napoleon is accused of shooting Covington, 36, with a shotgun Oct. 14 near a homeless camp at the intersection of Queen Kaahumanu Highway and Henry Street.
Ibarra asked the defendant to describe what happened the day Covington died.
Napoleon said he loaded shotgun cartridges with rock salt and shot Covington in the chest from about 6 to 8 feet away.
“I expected it to just sting,” Napoleon said. “I didn’t think it’d go through.”
When Ibarra asked him why he did it, Napoleon said he heard a rumor Covington had been raping women.
“He had gotten a little too close to my girlfriend I had at the time,” Napoleon said.
Witness Rex King testified during an October hearing that it wasn’t their intent to kill Covington. Their plan was to assault him and possibly send him to the hospital.
“I knew we were going to beat the (expletive) out of somebody,” King testified Oct. 26, adding that Napoleon did not seem upset after the incident. “He didn’t panic, he didn’t freak out. But neither did I.”
Napoleon seemed to feel justified after the shooting, King said.
Napoleon allegedly had King help him remove the body on Oct. 16 from where it was laying. Covington’s body was buried under lava rock and dry cement near mile maker 27 of Highway 190, also known as Mamalahoa Highway, in North Kona.
Napoleon was arrested a week after the killing at the scene of a detailed graffiti sketch on a street in the O‘oma Plantation subdivision. The work showed a man who appeared to be a shackled prisoner with one foot on top of a skull, on which the word “rapist” was written in red letters.
“Sometimes a man has to take action to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves,” text on the prisoner’s chest read.
Napoleon faced several other charges, which will be dismissed without prejudice in accordance with the plea agreement.
He faces six to eight years in prison and a restitution fee of approximately $1,450 to the Covington family for funeral expenses.
As Napoleon was being led from the courtroom he turned, gave a smile to family and said, “love you family.”
Napoleon’s family declined to comment after the hearing.
He is set to be sentenced at 8 a.m. May 2.
Email Tiffany DeMasters at tdemasters@westhawaiitoday.com.
