Peter Kema Sr. pleads guilty to manslaughter

Peter Kema Sr. pleaded guilty today to manslaughter and first-degree hindering prosecution in the death of his son.

Peter Kema Jr., also known as “Peter Boy,” went missing in 1997. He was 6 years old.

The 46-year-old Kema is scheduled to be sentenced at 8 a.m. June 9 before Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura. As part of a plea deal with prosecutors, a second-degree murder charge, which carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole upon conviction was reduced. Manslaughter is a Class A felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and first-degree hindering prosecution is a Class C felony punishable by up to five years behind bars.

Kema was set to go on trial April 25.

Kema will have to serve a minimum of six years and eight months before becoming eligible for parole if he lives up to his end of the plea agreement, which calls for him to direct authorities to the body of Peter Boy, whom prosecutors say died as a result of sepsis in a festering arm wound as a result of being abused by Kema and because neither Kema nor his wife, Jaylin Kema, obtained medical treatment for the boy’s injuries.

“The state agrees that it will recommend concurrent sentences on (both charges) if you provide information which results in the successful recovery of Peter Kema Jr.’s body, or if the body cannot be recovered, that you pass a polygraph examination regarding the location of the scene,” the judge told Kema.

The couple will also have to make restitution to the state for funeral expenses for the boy, who was severely abused almost from birth.

There is no statute of limitations on murder, but the statute of limitations on manslaughter and hindering prosecution had expired in the case, so Kema signed a waiver of statute of limitations for the plea deal to be put into place.

Family members of Peter Boy, including James Acol, his maternal grandfather, Allan Acol, his older half-sibling, and Lina Acol, his younger sister, were in court when Kema entered his pleas. They left without talking to the media.

“The most important thing was to bring closure to them and Mr. Acol was saying to us that he made a promise to his (late) wife that he’d keep on going and trying to find the body,” Hawaii County Prosecutor Mitch Roth said after the hearing. “There’s a lot of people that want a lot of things. I personally wanted a lot of things. But at the end of the day, I wanted to get justice for the family and this is what they wanted. … We’re a team, the Police Department and us. We don’t forget these cases. We just keep on going until we get resolution.”

Roth said he’s aware the plea deal may not sit well with some members of the public.

“I have a lot of faith in the parole board that he’ll probably do most of that 20 years if not all of 20 years. Again, some people may not be happy with this decision. My key people that I’m concerned about is the family. That’s what the family wanted,” he said.

“I strongly support the decision that Mr. Roth’s office made,” said Capt. Randall Medeiros of Hilo Criminal Investigation Division, one of the original police investigators on the case. “When this all started, my son was roughly the same age as Peter Boy was when he passed.”

Deputy Prosecutor Ricky Roy Damerville said authorities “have some kind of general idea” where Peter Boy’s body is.

“But we didn’t put that on the record because I don’t want a bunch of amateur hunters getting bit by the snakes in Hawaii that we don’t have looking for his body,” he said,

Stephen Lane, a special master appointed by Family Court to ascertain whether there are grounds for a wrongful death civil lawsuit to be filed on behalf of Peter Boy’s estate, called Kema’s plea “an astonishing outcome” and the deal engineered by Roth and Damerville “one of the greatest pieces of lawyering I’ve ever seen given the evidence as I understand it.”

Damerville acknowledged because of the intent component of a murder charge, a murder trial for the prosecution would be “rollin’ the dice.”

“My feeling was, if you got a fair and impartial jury in this case, there’s a good chance that they would come back (with) manslaughter, if (Kema) asked for manslaughter,” Damerville said. “ … As a defendant, you have a right to say, ‘No, I don’t want manslaughter (jury) instructions. Because the statute of limitations has run and I’m gonna take my chances.’

“…What he pled to is recklessly causing the death of his child, because he knew that child needed medical care and he wasn’t going to take him in for medical care. It’s not that … he hated his son so bad that he hoped he’d died. No, that’s not the facts of this case. That’s not what he died of. But you can make wrong choices. Obviously, he acknowledged that he made some wrong choices.”

Damerville said to him, it’s personal when the victim is a child, adding his own father was a World War II prisoner of war who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder

“Family abuse knows no masters,” he said. “There’s a lot of people suffer from it, myself included. So it’s kind of a personal journey, so to speak. … These children cases are personal, not just with me, but with everybody in law enforcement who deals with them.”

Jaylin Kema pleaded guilty to manslaughter in her son’s death on Dec. 1 and was sentenced to 10 years probation and a year in jail with credit for time served. She is set to be released April 27.

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.