Posted on November 9, 2022

Hawaii Hate Crime Trial Begins for Beating of White Man

Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, Associated Press, November 8, 2022

Lawyers representing two Native Hawaiian men don’t dispute they brutally assaulted a white man who purchased a house in their remote village on the island of Maui.

They acknowledged the 2014 attack was wrong, but they said it wasn’t a hate crime, as U.S. prosecutors allege.

Trial began Tuesday for Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi and Levi Aki Jr., who are charged with one federal count each of a hate crime.

Alo-Kaonohi punched and kicked Christopher Kunzelman and Aki hit him with a shovel when Kunzelman tried to fix up the house he purchased in Kahakuloa village, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Thomas told the jury.

Alo-Kaonohi dragged his finger down Kunzelman’s face and said his skin was the wrong color, Thomas said.

The attack, which left Kunzelman with injuries including a concussion, two broken ribs and head and abdominal trauma, never would have happened if it weren’t for his race, Thomas said.

It wasn’t Kunzelman’s race that sparked the attack, attorneys for the men said, blaming their actions on his entitled and disrespectful attitude.

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Kaonohi pleaded no contest to felony assault in state court in July 2019 in the case and was sentenced to probation. The trial in U.S. District Court in Honolulu is only to determine if they are guilty of a hate crime. {snip}

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Aki later told police Kunzelman was acting like a “typical haole,” Thomas said.

Haole, a Hawaiian word with meanings that include foreign and white person, is central to the case, which highlights multicultural Hawaii’s nuanced and complicated relationship with race.

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Kunzelman said he decided to take two pistols to Maui after hearing that a contractor he hired to do mold remediation had been assaulted when he showed up and after hearing his realtor say that the close-knit community of Native Hawaiians had a problem with white people.

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