A 32-year-old Hilo woman accused of stabbing her 79-year-old former father-in-law during a custody dispute more than 16 months ago has changed her plea in the case.
Frances Hartman pleaded no contest to first-degree assault Thursday in Hilo Circuit Court. As part of her plea deal with prosecutors, a charge of attempted second-degree murder was reduced to first-degree assault, and charges of first-degree custodial interference, violating a protective order, and second-degree terroristic threatening were dismissed.
As part of the agreement, Hartman will be sentenced to 10 years in prison, the maximum sentence for the Class B felony charge. Her sentencing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. March 28 before Hilo Circuit Judge Henry Nakamoto.
If convicted on the attempted second-degree murder charge, Hartman would have faced a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment — perhaps without the possibility of parole, because prosecutors had stated their intention of seeking an extended sentence against Hartman as an offender against an elderly victim.
William Hartman, then 77, was playing with his then 1-year-old granddaughter in his yard in Hilo’s Komohana Gardens subdivision on the morning of Aug. 31, 2022, when his estranged daughter-in-law entered the property. He told police that Frances Hartman threatened to kill him if he didn’t give her the baby.
When the senior citizen refused, Frances Hartman stabbed him in the abdomen twice with a box cutter, took the child and fled on foot.
Police apprehended Frances Hartman a short time later at a nearby neighborhood park and returned the baby unharmed to the child’s father and sole legal custodian, Alexander Hartman.
Police also recovered the box cutter with the bloody blade after executing a search warrant on a bag carried by Frances Hartman.
Hilo District Family Court Judge Jeffrey Ng on June 18, 2022, granted Alexander Hartman and the couple’s daughter an order for protection from Frances Hartman, effective until Jan. 18, 2025.
At the time of the offense, Frances Hartman also was serving a two-year probation term after being sentenced by Hilo District Family Court Judge Darien Nagata on May 11, 2022, for violating a previous TRO.
The victim of that TRO violation was Alexander Hartman, who last August was granted a divorce from Frances Hartman.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.