Small Town Murder - The Mutilated Musician - Kawaihae, Hawaii

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

This week, in Kawaihae, Hawaii, nobody freaks out when a beloved local musician disappears, thinking he may be playing some gigs, on another island, or maybe off searching for inspiration. But after a month, the search begins, centering around a local man, with a history of violence & meth dealing. When our musician is finally found, it's a brutal discovery. He's been horribly battered by multiple weapons. Did he accidentally cross a dangerous man, or did the police actually put him on a path to certain doom, because he had some minor criminal problems???   Along the way, we find out that islands have dry & wet sides, that you should never agree to gather information against a dangerous meth dealer, and that a ukulele is no match for guns, and hammers!!   New episodes, every Wednesday & Friday nights!! Check us out on VIDEO Wednesday and Friday evenings on Netflix! www.netflix.com/smalltownmurder Donate at patreon.com/crimeinsports or at paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions!   Follow us on... instagram.com/smalltownmurder facebook.com/smalltownpod   Also, check out James & Jimmie's other shows, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!!

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay, and choo-choo. Yay, indeed, Jimmy. Yay, indeed. My name is James Petro Gallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wiseman. Thank you, folks, so much for joining us today on another crazy, wild Small Town Murder Express edition.

As you know, 10 pounds of murder and a two-pound bag. We got an hour, and we're going to slam a big murder into there. So let's get into it real quickly. Before we do, though, definitely head over to shut up and give me murder.com. Get your tickets for live shows. Oh, we've been having such a blast. Buffalo in Detroit were incredible. Thank you, everybody.

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So do that. Get yourself Patreon. And that said, I think it's time to sit back, everybody. What do you say here? Let's all clear the lungs here. You know, arms to the sky. Yeah, yeah. Let's all shout.

Show! up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody. Okay. Let's go on a trip, shall we? Where are we going? Some place, nice. Yeah?

We are going to, oh, man, Kauai, Kauai, Hawaii. Oh, hello, Hawaii. Yeah, we've been in different places, but we're going to Hawaii. It's been a long time. God, I'm butchering that pronunciation. Yeah, I'll never understand how to do that language. That's one of those where I'll say, how do you pronounce this? Someone will say it to me and then I can't repeat it back to them.

It's the craziest thing that my mouth does not make the noise correctly. It's like Native American, like Tohota Odom or some shit like that. It's hard. It's hard. It's so hard. This is K-A-W-A-I-H-A-E. Kawa-H-A-E. I don't know. I've heard it pronounced 12 times and that's the best I can come out with.

I don't know. It's on the north side of the beach. Big Island, Hawaii. Hawaii is the big island. It's the southernmost of the islands. And this is on the north side of the island. So this is the dry side of the island. There's a dry side and the wet side.

Not sure, I think, because one side has mountains because there's like, there's volcanoes there. I know there's lava fields and all that. And then on the other side, it's lower. Yeah. So the weather with the volcanic shit cuts down the humidity? I have no, you're asking the wrong guy now. Who the fuck would do that? I got to know about.

Murders and comedy and legal shit. I don't know. Meteorology is really not my star point. Let's get weather patterns involved. Yeah, that's, I don't know anything about it. So, but on the north side of the island, the dry side. Now, I tried to do like the time. We do drive times in Hawaii is a totally different thing.

So. The bets are off. To our last episode, which by the way was so long ago, episode 474. This is 706. It's been, it's been 300 shows. Over two years since we've done a. an episode in Hawaii. That was in Hana, Hawaii.

That was twin-powered craziness. Remember the twins that did like yoga stuff, the twin blonde ladies? That was crazy. Yeah, it was it? Oh, we've only done like three here. We've done like four or five episodes, I think. Yeah.

So this is to Hana, it's a 40-minute flight to another island, followed by a three-and-a-half-hour drive from the airport to Hana. So that's how to get there. This is in Hawaii County. Area code 808. population, that's all of Hawaii is 808,

population here, 742, not many. This is not a real tourist spot. This is kind of a local spot. Well, it's not tropical because it's dry. I mean, it's still Hawaii and nice, but it's not constantly raining. That's the thing, because it's some of Hawaii is like a rainforest kind.

It rains all the time. Do they have desert? They can't have desert, right? I don't know if it's like desert, but it's dry. Close enough. Yeah. Median household income here, 97,500, which is well above the national average, about 69.

Well, here the median home cost, $44,700, which for Hawaii is low. That's not bad. This is not a real hugely desirable area. You know what I mean? It's not like Maui or something. It's not that kind of place, but it's very nice. And fucking Lincoln, Nebraska. It's very nice.

Exactly. That sounds awesome. So history of this town, a little bit here of history. Basically, well, there's the King Kamehamehamehah stuff here where his rival cousin arrived here and then his cousins, many followers, were killed and sacrificed

to fulfill the... The cousins were? Yes, to fulfill the prophecy and gain spiritual power. That's the king. This event somehow paved the way for a bunch of Kamehamea's conquest leading to the unification

of the Hawaiian kingdom in 1810. So I guess, any rival leader, including his cousins, he's going to cut them out. It feels like something you would do. Anybody that comes to visit you, you'd just sacrifice. Like Vlad the Impaler? Yeah, don't come to my house. Well, I wouldn't invite you to be sacrificed.

That's the thing. You show up unannounced. That's a whole other thing. That's what feels like happened here. Yeah. If Vlad the Impaler did all that because all those people showed up for dinner unannounced, I'd go, I understand what he's doing. Yeah, fucking call before you come.

What are you doing, bro? Send a messenger to do something. His cousin. He's showing up with his family. He's like, throw them in the volcano. I love my cousins, but call first. It's all I'm saying. You know what I mean?

That's it. This was also a filming location for Waterworld. Oh, okay. The famous Kevin Kozner bomb. So there are no reviews for this town of any kind. They are not telling a soul. Couldn't find them. So let me try one.

Okay. Here, it's going to be hard. All right. It's goddamn paradise. Smoke a fatty. Grab a snorkel. and shut the fuck up. Five stars.

There you go. There's a review of the town. It's probably still fucking amazing. It's great. Things to do here, well, it's Hawaii. Do I seriously need to tell you about some, you know, festival that's going on? It's all a festival.

Hasn't somebody given you a fucking postcard? Yeah, no shit. But I did find a place where some music happens around here. The Blue Drago Tavern and Cosmic Musiquarium. Musicquarium. Muse Aquarium, the bands that we'll be playing there. The new salts, funky jams, which seems like someone would have taken that by now. At least in the 70s.

Regular old funky. Yeah, I feel like someone in 1973 took that, right? Blaine Azing, A-S-I-N-G, Kingside. We also have the Johnny Ness Band. Yeah. Jesus. Tomi Asobi. The Savory Brothers, not savory like a taste with an e-savory.

Tavana, it's Johnny Shot. Who or what? Johnny Shire. I would have gotten that one by now. Baldhead. Looks like Bill Goldberg with a guitar, which is an odd thing. DJ Overflow. Hell yeah.

And let's see, Pete Sawyer and the left-hand monkey wrench gang. What? Their logo is basically like it looks like a Grateful Dead logo, but there's a wrench in there instead of a skull. That's a lot of words. A lot of words to put on a marquee of a small place. And then Brother Noland, who looks like a very old man with white hair and a white beard, standing in this field and smiling. I feel like this is all locals, right? A lot of locals, yeah.

This is a long flight in to do a bar and get paid $180. To play the Aquarium. Muse Aquarium. That said, let's talk about some murder. What do you say here? All right. We have, let's talk about a young man first here, or a man, I should say. Robert Kiway Ryder, R-Y-D-E-R.

He goes by L-O-P-A-K-A-L-O-P-A-K-A. L-O-P-A-K-A. L-P-A-R-P-A. It's probably his Hawaiian name, yeah. Well, it means something, as we'll get into later, and his family all calls him that. Now, he's born in Honolulu, but he didn't grow up there. I feel like Honolulu's where the good hospital is in 1976. So that's where you go.

But he grew up on the other side of the big island on the wet side, you know, where it rains in the Puna district here, which basically is a lot of jungle and lava. A lot of volcanoes and jungle. It's real Hawaii. Like that's real Hawaii where you'd like grow weed and, you know, set up traps that'll kill people if they try to fuck with them. It didn't really expand to like mainlanders living there until later, right? Like around 70s and 80s. Is that about when people started moving there? No, it was after World War II.

Pearl Harbor. It was after Pearl Harbor. It was after Pearl Harbor. And then that's when, if you look at like in the 50s and 60s, there was a million like teaky bars and like that's southeast, southwest or southeast Pacific shit, South Pacific shit became real popular. And then Hawaii became a state. And then it was, yeah, because we were vacationing there a lot.

So now his most. Now, his mother's name is Deborah or Debbie. His father is Roy Ryder Jr. Oh. Roy Ryder Jr. So he's got brother named Waylao, W-A-I-L-A-U, and K-A-W-A-I. But he goes by Buddy. Perfect.

I would, too. Okay. He's like, I'm tired of people fucking my name up. That's too much. So Lopaka and his brother Wailu, of course, the one who has a not called buddy that I have to try to pronounce his name is the one that is going to be involved in this. They were very musical, both of them. Oh. They're both musical guys.

Lopaka is all music all the time. He's got his ukulele and he plays. Is that what he's playing? That's what he's playing. And he plays all sorts of shit. He is Mr. Hawaii. Yeah. So their aunt is a guy.

Oh, Jesus. Le. Le O-Hou-L-E-I-A-U-Rider. That's their aunt. And she's a very famous Hawaiian singer from Maui. She was singing for 30 years. She's known as a spiritual leader and a healer and a singer-songwriter and all that shit. She's...

Big deal, huh? Miss, yeah, everything on the island. So she included... She got the Gandhi King Peace Hero Award. the United Nations Peace Educator Award. And she teaches healing and chant to audiences in Miami and Amsterdam and at the United Nations. Oh, it's not just here locally. She's traveling.

She's big. She's big. And she's known as, quote, an emissary of Aloha. So they loved her and they took the musical stuff and really ran with it, the kids, especially Lepaka here. In 2007, both boys here, they're about 30 years old at this point, or at least Lepaka is, they appeared on a Palm Records compilation called Namele Hula, which was a Hula album here, and it produced, it was basically features the, what they called the heavy hitters of Hawaiian music. Okay. And they're on it, too. It had Sonny Lim, who was nominated for a Grammy for Best Hawaiian Music album, which I didn't know as a category.

They don't show that one on TV. They got a whole category. That's in like a basement ceremony that they have. There's like that, some technical awards. They do that one real early. Best Wyoming Cowboy album, things like that go on down there. The same record as Randy Lorenzo, who has a bunch of awards and Hawaiian Grammys. Oh, I think it's a Hawaiian Grammy.

That's what it is. Are they just to it in Hawaii only? Maybe. And then the brothers are also on this. And they said in the liner notes that they were heavily influenced by their aunt and everything like that. So they are, La Paca is really a kind of a staple in the Hawaiian music scene by the mid-2000s. Okay.

Everybody knows who he is. He's apparently very talented and I've seen videos of him playing. Guys great. I mean, Well, I've never seen coverage of a bar or any sort of photography of a bar in Hawaii without a live and they don't play fucking, yeah, they're playing Hawaiian shit every time. Yeah, no, they're not. It's not like, okay, here's fucking shooting star from bad company.

Like, they don't ever do that. Like, it's never, never that at all. It's always, uh, here's some fog hat, everybody. Yeah. You never hear that shit. Who's ready for some. You can eat a pineapple thing. Yeah, who's ready for some Huey Lewis in the news, uh, folks?

You never hear that shit. They might cover some, uh, some of that parent head guy shit, but. No, Jimmy Buffett. I think they probably, they would probably fucking put him on a, on a steak if they could. I assume real beach people who are like from that environment probably hate him. Like all the islands Jimmy Buffett goes to, all those people want to murder him in his sleep if he wasn't paying for everything. Think about it. They're like, ah, that motherfucker, he tips well, but God damn it, do I want to stab him in the throat.

I'm going to hear a cheeseburger song again. God damn it. I don't know what that is and I'm so thankful I don't. Cheeseburger in Paradise, you know that song. I do not know that song. I bet you you've heard it. I bet you I haven't. Not more than four seconds of it anyway

Before I got rid of it. That's all you got to know is cheeseburger on paradise. That's not enough to get that out, I don't think. Because Jimmy Buffett sings slow. Off. I fucking hate that shit. I think that's the only song of his that I can recognize. I mean, I know the one of the-

Isn't he Margarita-ville? What is it? Isn't he Margarita-ville? That's the song that everyone knows is covered in every goddamn shitty bar in America. Yeah. So Lopaka here, big into music, singer, composer,

entertainer, um, likes to fish. Everything I've seen of him, he's like, just a pair of board shorts. Yeah. Just sitting there.

Yeah. Curls coming out of his hat. It's, fucking playing the ukulele. Just singing. It looks like he's just loving life completely. Like, you know. And how good you know? That sounds great. You, when you watch him, you go, that guy's going to live to be 130. He has no stress at all. Like none. That's what it is that kills us, right? Yeah. One day, one day, one day of making these shows is equal to 20 years of this guy's stress. 20 fucking year. And that's including if he got bit by a shark I would put in there too. He has no

stress. He's also a coconut weaver. Yeah. How do you weave? I was like, how do you make a coconut? How does that work? He takes the strings from it? Takes the strings and they make shit out of it. All the stuff from that. It's a

very well-known Hawaiian craft. In Hawaii, they make tons of shit out of the coconut. Really? But yeah, think about it. Back in the day, there's not a lot of resources on the island. So you use what you have. To make rope and shit. Yeah.

And then things also on the ground, there's not a lot of room to grow like, you know, cotton to make outfits and shit or even to sew things. So they make hats and they make platters and they make little figures that go like on traditional, you know, festivals and things like that. So by his 30s, Lepaka is huge in the island scene for the music here. And he, you know, does basically all of these things. He'll play all like, he'll play on, like, by cruise ships when they dock. He'll do, like, tide pool concerts. And he even played at the Iron Man Triathlon. Uh-huh.

Tide pool concert sounds like the best Sunday ever. That doesn't sound bad at all. That's what I mean. Wow. How do you have stress? What's the stress? Yeah. The words tide pool just alone seems like the best.

Some guy with a ukulele singing fucking, you're all stoned and drunk sitting there. Feedingly. Pineapple. What are we talking about? Sounds great. How is the life expectancy, not 111 there? I don't understand it. Sounds amazing.

Sounds awesome. It's probably the spam. Maybe I think it's all that spam and salt and yeah. So they even, there's a big island video news, okay? And they have a bunch of clips of him sitting on the rocks above the, the surf with a ukulele. And they have one clip of him doing that, and he's playing, and the narrator over it says he's,

quote, he's the perfect compliment for the scenery. Okay. That's who Lopaka is. If you have Hawaii and that whole thing, you can just place him in there, and he just blends and goes with the scenery. Yep. Yeah.

It's him and spam and a fucking lay. And by the way, in Hawaii, the goddamn newscasters wear lays. On TV? On goddamn TV, like they just got off a plane. It's wild. Why do they do that? Hey, Aloha, bitch.

What do you want? I don't know. I mean. Because fucking Aloha. Because why not? And their lays are like these fucking party city lays are just like a bunch of flowers and shit. They put like, they weave green into it.

They have like vines and stuff. Their laser mind-blower. Yeah, they don't have those on the news. They're just the lights of flower ones. Yeah. They don't have the ones that look like you got caught in a fucking jungle. Yeah. Looks like you were trying to get out of some thick brush or anything.

but still. Yeah, it's like when you get married, you look like a, like a landscaper just emptied his fucking bag. Oh, it's everywhere. Yeah, you're covered in stuff. It's so much shit. Covered in shit.

So, yeah, he's the perfect compliment for the scenery. That's, he is Hawaii. Like, if you took him out of here and said, you have to live in Omaha now, he would die in three days. Like, he'd just drop dead. My flowers don't grow. Yeah, he would like, if you poured salt on a bug,

like he'd shrivel up and just die with a ukulele. next to him. Another clip they have of him from June 2010, he's playing at the ukulele and Farm Fest, which I didn't know those things went together. Farm fest? Why not? I guess there, though, yeah? Why not? Yeah. Now, there is

a little problem, and we don't know what it really stems from or how the details of this really work out, but at some point, there's a woman who has an order of protection against him. We don't know for what or for why. I have no idea. It was a ukulele on her. Made her listening.

Yeah, listen to me, damn it. Yeah. Maliki Lickie Waka is the right way to say Merry Christmas to you, motherfucker. Listen to me. So later on, though, in 2013, he is charged with a violation of that order of protection. Oh. Which is not good here. So he is sentenced to probation for that in early 2013, I believe.

So that's the only real run-in with the law that I can find for him at all. all, in October 2013, he is sentenced to a year in prison for violating his probation. So he did something. Oh, violated the parole? You can't tell Lopaka what to do. No, apparently not. Well, you know what? He just goes where he feels, you know what I mean?

Where the draw of the rock and the lava and the waves take him? Aloha, motherfucker. Really? It's the ukulele that chooses. I don't choose where I go. I follow the ukulele like a divining rod. So Jack Sparrow's fucking compass. Just go where it says.

Go where it tells me. So he's sentenced to a year in prison for violating this probation here. Now, they take him in and a year in prison for a guy like this. That's tough. That's tough. I mean, they're going to make him more shoes and stuff. Like, it's going to be bad for it. No yukes, babe.

Well, you might be able to get a yuk in there, I bet. In a Hawaiian prison, I think that's like a harmonica and, you know, the Old West. I think they're allowed to have that at least. You can't hit somebody with a harmonica, though. No, but if you. hit another prisoner with a ukulele, they're going to kill you. They're going to go, the fuck did you just do to me? Yeah, that'll piss you off.

That's just going to piss somebody off. So they get him in the room here, and they're talking about how he's going to do a year in prison. Shit. So the police bring him in, and he obviously doesn't want to have a year in prison, as you can imagine. And they basically say to them, I mean, a year in prison, it's rough, and prison's not great here. and it's tough to go in and not a lot of beaches and not a lot of ukuleleys and louis and shit. And they said, but there's also an alternative.

What's that? That is maybe you could help us out a little bit and maybe we can make it so you don't have to go to prison for a year. Maybe we can get it so your probation's reinstated as a matter of fact. Maybe we can get you out of all this trouble. Well, you're just going to need to do some stuff for us. Oh, boy. And that is he agrees.

and signs an agreement to serve as a confidential informant for the vice division of the Hawaii Police Department. He is going to be an informant to get himself out of trouble here. I thought you guys are going to make me do sexual things. It's much easier. This is, yeah, except I don't think it's as dangerous probably. Oh, I'm sure it's not as dangerous because Hawaiian gangsters, I've heard. Oh, they don't know.

They're dangerous. Oh, there's a lot of places to put you out there. Yeah. It's rough. So it's like being in like the West Virginia Hills or something. Yeah. It's a drop you on a pineapple patch. You never know.

So basically that's what's going on. They want him to concentrate on cases involving the possession and sale of narcotics. Now, if you think about it, he'd be a perfect guy to put into the scene because, I mean, the guy with board shorts on a ukulele and no one's going to suspect that guy's working with the cops. You know what I mean? Tide pools? There's drugs there. And he's doing him. You know what I mean?

You know, he's smoking a fatty before you fucking come out and play ukulele music at a tide pool, don't you? Probably what he got caught for then, yeah? Yeah, I smoke weed before this. Can you imagine if I was just strumming? Where's the tide pool, man? Yeah. I thought there was a tide pool here, man. What the fuck?

We got to make more money, man. Thought I heard water. I guess not. So, anyway, that's what he starts doing. And they turn him toward a particular target. a guy named Martin Frank Booth here. He's 55 years old at this time. He's born in 1958.

And he has got, this guy is not a good guy. And the cops know it. Oh, he's bad. They've arrested him. He has a huge felony convictions. He has history of drug possession, history of distribution of methamphetamine, firearms charges. He is the scum of the island, basically, this guy.

I'm not a good guy, but also a very dangerous guy. A guy who has tons of guns and meth is not the guy you want to cross usually. A guy that has tons of illegal guns in Hawaii, that's got to be the hardest place in America to get an illegal gun. It's got to float all the way the hell over there. Yeah. So he lives on Hanakoa Street in Kauaihe, Kauai, whatever the hell, however the hell you pronounce this town, which is just a small unincorporated harbor town. It's on, it's in the, by the water, right on the harbor there. Hey, everybody, just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you how to get the best personalized, cool gifts for everyone in your family and friends and everyone that you love with Zazel.

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This is the area where, if you were at the resort, they'd say, there's nothing up there. You don't need to go up there. Yeah. It's where resort developers are like, I think we've gone far enough. Pretty much there. So it has a harbor, a fuel depot, a shipping terminal,

a small military landing pad. Doesn't sound like Hawaii to me. No, they use this shit like a Midwestern, like the military uses a Midwestern state and, you know, in America. So it's got a couple of restaurants, mainly just locals, not a lot of foot traffic,

not a lot of, you know, people coming from the mainland to wander around and go, oh, isn't that pretty? Like, none of that shit really. I'm shocked. That it's all, yeah, that it's all like that. That exists there, yeah. Yeah.

I mean, you can go to any of these tropical islands and they have areas like that, that, you know, people don't really. There's some place that doesn't. Just for locals. Yeah. Now, he's very well known in the narcotics. distribution circles in this area here.

And by 2013, they were an active target of the vice squad. They were building a meth trafficking case against him. And they were doing it with the help of confidential informants. So, and that main one they were trying to use is LaPaca. They want to use him. Does he know him? He knows him. Everybody, they all know each other in this area.

It's anybody who's local pretty much knows each other. There's 742 people. and on the music scene, they, you know, they know each other, basically. It would be very weird to be like, James, we caught you speeding and you're on probation. We're going to put you in jail. But if you go down to the city and go talk to Joey Montana, you're like, who the fuck's that? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. You can talk to them about stuff. Go in there, talk to them about pasta or something, and you'll figure it out. I don't know. Tell them a sausage. He'll like that. Ask him where good sandwiches are. And they're going to offer you a job.

If you ever want an Italian to talk to you in New York and New Jersey, just all you need to do, I'm telling you, every other thing, people might be rude to you, whatever. If you say, where do I get a good sandwich, 400 people will swarm to you. They'll fight each other and argue, but by the end of it, they'll come up with a consensus of where you can get a really good prosciutto and fucking fresh mouserl and peppers. You'll be parking cars there by the afternoon. That's right. That's how it works. That's how Henry Hill got started. So sometime here after December 18th, 2013.

And this is what I, there's different, differing things here. The government will have one set of what they think will happen and then reality here, like the prosecution and the state will have an idea of when this happened. And then in reality, we kind of have to put it after that, though, because it's, interesting. So anyway, sometime in December, what we know is that Martin Booth, the guy who's the bad

guy here, uh, in this story for right now, during a 23 day period, he has more police interactions than the two of us have ever had put together. Why? And probably half of our listeners too. Um, here is one. December 18th, well, half of them are probably, I

assume felons. You know, we draw, we draw, we draw, a certain crab, Jimmy, you know what I mean? No. We have people that have never seen cops, and then the other half, all the time. All the time. Yeah, they're listening from prison right now. That's how it works.

So this is the date number one of these. There's four different occurrences. December 18, 2013. The vice section executes a search warrant on a home in Hanakoa Street, which is where he lives. That's Martin's house. The cops find 8.1 grams of what they describe as a crystalline substance, which they find out will be meth later on, and 128 grams of weed.

Oh. Okay. And a rifle and various other items of drug paraphernalia. Uh-oh. Now, the thing is, he's not home when they raid, though. He's not home. So there's other people at the property there, Russell Kong, Keone Kong, and growl. That's a cool-ass name.

How do you not name your kid King? What the fuck, man? Keone is one of the coolest names I've ever heard. Kong is a great last name. Yeah. Kioni's fine, but your last name is Kong. That's fucking badass. Keone might mean King in Hawaiian. Maybe, who knows?

So there's another Graely Vasconelos also there. So three guys hanging out there, but he's not home, but it's his house, which makes it seem like they're running something out of here, basically. In case these people come by, you guys distribute. Yeah, so those guys are arrested and released because they're not the target of the warrant, which is, Martin. That's the one they want. They said that Martin lived in the house but was not in attendance that day. So his house is raided, they get some meth and weed and a rifle, which he's not allowed to have also. And those, those together are very bad. Yeah, not only can he not have a rifle, but you mix the drugs on a rifle together, it's bad. So then December 29th, 2013,

11 days later, Kona Patrol officers respond to a residence here on Kenui Road in Captain Cook, which is on the South Kona side. A woman calls in and reports that an unknown man has just threatened her with a firearm and then fled in a sedan. Oh. So threatened a shooter took off. So the cops find the sedan

and chase it onto Highway 11 in Captain Cook. It's weird that Hawaii even has highways. It feels like it's just ruining the scenery. Why are you putting that there? So the sedan is being driven by a woman named Regina Patrick. Now, there's also a mail occupant. As the cops close in on this car, the mail occupant bails.

Okay. He takes off there. Okay. Now, Regina, Patrick, is arrested on a $250 bench warrant for contempt of court that she had. So they take her in, and then they get a, but the guy ran away. Now, they get a warrant to search the sedan. Inside the sedan, they find a loaded pistol. Uh-oh.

unloaded shotgun, but numerous rounds of ammunition for the shotgun. 18.8.8.8.8.8.5 grams of meth. A little less than a gram of weed. So nothing much there enough for a joint or something. 40 prescription pills, brass knuckles, several large knives, and paraphernalia for the use and sale of crystal methamphetamine. So we're talking scales, baggies, things of that nature. And maybe even cutting agents. So that's just in one car. Just in the car. That's like the, the, the, his ice cream truck, but pretty much. Yeah, ring the bell everybody. Ding, ding, ding, ding, come gets up. So the, the investigation on this, no, I don't know if Regina gave it up or what, but the investigation

determines, they say, that Martin Booth was the guy in the car who ran away. He's the sprinter. He's the sprinter and that everything in the car is his. It's his, yeah, basically. So. And, He doesn't seem to have a whole lot of shit. I mean, to travel with, he does. I mean, combined with what's back at the house as like a kingpin, that's not that much. We don't know if that's his only place. He knows how many places he had. That's what I mean.

That's probably what the cops think, too. We're not getting that much out of this guy, but he seems to be a big deal. Either way, he's selling meth. That's the problem here. And meth a lot of times gets sold by a quarter gram and shit. So, you know, that's a little drop. So it can be, you know, plenty. So they are looking for him, obviously. Now, they also find out that through the witnesses and

everything, that Martin Booth was the guy who pointed the gun at a woman to begin with that started this chase here. So now he's got guns and he's pointing guns at people and he's got meth and he's already a felon. He's a convicted felon. Yeah. Then on January 9th, 2014, at 7.30 in the morning, police find him finally. They've been looking for him since the war. It's been another 11 days. The traffic stop here. They locate him at a residence on Luau Drive in Hawaiian Ocean View Estates. Wow.

Sounds beautiful, but it's not. It's shit. It's not great. It's called a sprawling subdivision of cheap lots on a sloping lava flow at the south end of the island. Oh. Yeah. Basically, there's a lot of like, you know, generators and this isn't a great place. but he's arrested there

and on a $200,000 grand jury bench warrant for second degree assault, which is, that's the pointing the gun. So he's hauled in and they hold him there for a minute.

Now, so he's still in jail. The next day, January 10th, 2014, this is 515 in the afternoon. They charge him with 23 additional offenses. That's a lot. Their investigation. Methamphetamine trafficking.

eight counts of promoting dangerous drugs, promoting controlled substances near a school. Uh-oh. Three counts of promoting detrimental drugs. Three counts of possessing drug paraphernalia. Six firearm offenses. Terroristic threatening plus second-degree assault, which he was the original thing. So it's 24 charges. Bale is set at $266,000.

Okay. Very specific. You can tell that was added up. Yeah. Interesting number. Yeah. So he doesn't have $266,000. or $26,600 even on a...

He doesn't have it. So he is going to sit in a jail cell for a while. Shit. Now, the issue here, his house that was raided... Remember the original house that was rated on the first one? I assume they went through it with a fine-tooth comb because they're looking for drug stuff. So you can have a little baggy this big,

so you can tear the whole place apart doing that. Now, also, he has another property that has a trailer on it. Okay? So he has a couple of properties here. He's got a property with a trailer with people who live in the trailer. Now, their names are never really released publicly,

so we don't know their names. We're going to call them the Lord and Lady of the trailer here. It's a 28-year-old woman and her boyfriend. And her Lord. And her Lord of the manner. So the boyfriend apparently has some kind of relationship with Martin. some kind of tenant help around the, you know, handyman type of thing.

You let us live in the trailer. I'll trim the bushes or whatever the fuck. An agreement. Arrangement is. And we don't know if there's anything that has to do with drugs involved in that or what. We don't know. Okay. Now, one thing we do know here, so that's all Martin's thing.

Now, let's go back to Thanksgiving 2013 before all of his legal trouble started and catch back up with Lopaka. Yeah. He apparently at least saw or contacted his family. on Thanksgiving, November 28, 2013. His family spoke to him. We're not sure if he came over or just it was a phone call or what. But they contacted him that day and then basically don't hear from him for a while.

Now, this is not abnormal. So the whole month of December, he's 37 years old. He's got his own place, doesn't live with his family. And he's a real free spirit. He goes and travels to do music gigs. They don't hear from him. him. He doesn't check in a couple times a week. Sometimes he'll go. He's not a father or a husband or anything.

No, he's got no responsibility. Like there's no job if he doesn't show up for and they're going to call. It's what I mean. No stress. No stress. Good Lord. The other day, I was sitting and I was relaxing for a little while. And I got like eight minutes into it. And then I realized, oh, I have a ton of shit I have to do. And I have to do all this work. And I had to. You better get to work. And I literally looked, I said, obviously, I can't, if I'm relaxing, it means I know I'm missing something because I work all that. I'm putting something terrible that I need to do off. So I can't imagine just having a month where no one's heard for me and they're like, hey, he's doing something. He's all right.

Something terrible. Something terrible. Yeah. And I consider, you know, constant research terrible for me. It's not exactly playing a ukulele on a lava rock. You know what I'm saying? It's so casual. Because it is casual. I do it. It's all I do with my life.

I know. If I built it up more, I'd snap. You know what I mean? I have to just. It's just so familiar and constant in your life. I'm like, I'm probably putting something terrible off. It's exactly it. And I said to Sarah, that's what it is.

If I'm relaxing for five minutes, that means I have to do. an inventory of what I should be doing because there's something I need to be doing because there's no way I'm allowed to relax for five fucking minutes. It's not possible. So, anyway, so the whole month of December, Lepaka has not heard from at all.

No one hears from him and they assume he's playing gigs and, you know, maybe it's, a lot of people go to Hawaii for the holidays. And that's also the cheap season to go there. Yeah, that and they go for New Year's Eve. A lot of people say they go for that holiday. So they probably think there's some tour

shit going on. He's probably got some gigs, you know. But by January, they start to be a little, hey, who's, have you heard from your brother? He did come by for Christmas? No, that's, I mean, no Merry Christmas, no anything. I don't know how much they celebrate Christmas. If they're that kind of, whatever their family's into, I'm not sure. But by the second week of January, they haven't heard from them for about 45 days. They start to get, everyone's, they start asking each other. They're like, something's wrong. This isn't a, yeah, he's not doing a world European tour right now. I mean, he had checked in. So they actually

report him officially missing to the Hawaii County Police Department. On January 22nd, the police department puts out a press release that he's missing. He's 510, 150 pounds, green eyes, short brown hair, probably carrying a

ukulele. Basically. Likely, likely ukulele. Now, at this time, they declare him officially missing on January 17th. At this point, Martin Booth has been sitting in the Hawaii Community Correctional Center for about eight days. Yeah.

Okay. Now, January to early March, 2014, nobody hears from Lepaka. He's gone. Really? Missing posters are spread around, all the gigs he plays. Four months. No sign of him anywhere. No one's seen him.

And he's a guy that you'd see him and you'd know that he was there. Yeah. Yeah, he was here singing songs, playing music. It was fun. It was fun. Yeah. It's great. He's a perfect compliment.

He's like furniture. Like, that's weird. They treat the poor guy like furniture. So. A nice corner desk. Yeah, exactly. Early March 2014 here. So, I mean, months have gone by.

His family's very worried. And a man walks into a police station. Uh-oh. Random man we've not heard about in the story yet. And he tells the police he needs to speak to a detective. All right. And they're like, I mean, sure, what the hell? You know what I mean?

mean, so go sit in the corner there. And he says, listen, he said that I was coerced by someone into helping that someone corner a person. Okay. And what I witnessed was the person who coerced me into helping shoot that other person. I am an accessory. Yep. And he says, I help that person dispose of the body. Holy shit. So I know where this body. is and I can take you to it right now. And the cops said, I mean, they don't know if this guy's crazy or what, but they go, I mean, we'll take a ride wherever you want to go, I guess. Sure, what the hell? Let's take a look here. Certainly worth looking at. So Monday, March 10, 2014, the Hawaii County detectives here are led by this person into a brushland between the Queen Kha'ahuamano Highway and the Boaco Beach Drive in South

Kohala, oh my God. Neither of us have visited this place. My brain is broken, guys. This is hard. Neither of us can afford to go to Hawaii. No, ever. Are you kidding me? A plane over ocean?

We could even do the lake. I go there's water. No. Wow. So they recover human remains there. Oh, shit. And they've been out there.

Why? These remains for a long time. This is about 5.30 p.m. The land is described as vacant land and brush land about halfway between Pauaco Beach Drive and the Queen K highway, let's call her. Queen K. So it sounds like you just sell a lot of fucking ketamine. It's all that is. The girl that killed.

The guy killed Matthew Perry. Yeah, that's the one. I know exactly where you're going there. Martyring bitch. March 12. 2012, 2014. Okay, they run the autopsy. And because there is so much decomposition here, as you can imagine, the medical examiner is only able to determine the cause of death.

And that's pretty much it, not really much else. You can confirm that? Well, they're obvious, that's why. There is the fact that he's been shot. Okay. So that's interesting. and also blunt force trauma to the head, probably a hammer, crushed the skull too.

Lord. So he's been shot and beaten with a hammer, this corpse. It's a male person. And so Thursday, March 13th, the dental records confirm that it's Lepaka's body. No. Yeah, poor guys out there, crushed skull and everything else.

And it's a big deal in the community over there for the musical community. is what I mean. The Big Island video news that said he's the perfect compliment to the scenery. They pulled that clip and redid the voiceover to say Lopaka's melodies were the perfect compliment for the scenery. Oh, fuck. Not R the perfect compliment.

Past tense the old interview. Yep. That's so sad because they wanted to keep it up because it's great, great shot. So June 9th, 2014, they return an indictment on Martin Booth. for one count of second degree murder for killing it. The court issues the bench warrant. It's funny too because what they do is they pull him out like it's a routine court appearance related to his drug case. And they brought him, walk him into a courthouse and cuffs.

And then they go, oh, by the way, you're under arrest for murder. This one's murder. This one's murder. So that guy tied him to it, said that's the guy that came out with. Yeah, Martin Booth coerced me. And the thing is, he said this happened in Martin Booth's garage. the same garage that was thoroughly searched on December 18th. And they found nothing.

And the medical examiner puts the cause of death, or not the cause of death, the time of death, before December 18th. Oh. So either the cops, okay, either the medical examiner's wrong, which is possible with that much decomposition. Or these cops are so fucking inept that a person had their skull bashed in, shot and then removed, and then they searched the house very soon after and didn't find one fucking sign of that. No drops of blood. Nothing.

The man that absolutely was leaking. Everywhere. Yeah. So I'm sorry, but either that's complete incompetence or the medical examiner's wrong. Either way, something, somebody didn't do their job correctly there. Although I know the medical examiners. Could be upped a little bit. Yeah.

Maybe if you, if you're a homicide detective, a doctor, or, or. anyone doing an autopsy, we'd like you to have some stress. No one else. So they say that Booth is also being looked at for a string of unsolved robberies in West Hawaii right around the time that Lopaka disappeared as well. Oh. So he's got all sorts of shit going on. Now, this is where it gets interesting.

Okay. Remember the trailer people, the Lord and Lady of the trailer there? Well, they go to the police and says that, okay. the woman says she told her boyfriend that Lopaka sexually assaulted her. Oh, that's the story that we'll get later on. So the boyfriend, her story is the boyfriend then told Martin Booth about it. And Booth went back to the woman and confronts her saying, is this true? And she said it was several days passed.

And then Booth approached the woman and tells her, quote, that he shot and killed La Paca for what he had done to her. Oh. Okay. So that's the official story that these two people from the trailer are now telling, Ann Martin is telling the police. Yeah, I did it, but I did it because he sexually assaulted a woman. They must have got word that he was in prison about this, right? Or in jail about it. Yeah. He lives on. And they were like, we got to get out ahead of this. And he's known as a dangerous guy around here also. So this is a, for him to say, go tell them this and them to actually do it would be not out of the realm of possible. at all. Like, it just seems like probable, honestly. So that's what they tell the grand jury as well, the Lord and Lady of the trailer. So they say that, you know, Martin was basically being his protector. And he said, they also said, Booth told numerous people that he killed Ryder because Ryder had sexually assaulted a young woman who lives on Booth's property. The only three people on earth that are saying that are her, her boyfriend and Martin Booth also. Okay. Now, Lepaka's family does not believe. this at all. Yeah.

They think it's bullshit. They think Booth figured out that La Paca was probably wearing a fucking wire and working with the Vice Squad. Yeah. And if this Martin Booth's been around a long time and he's 55, he might know a cop or two also that might tip him off to shit. So they're like

they're saying this is, this is bullshit. Literally he signed up to be a fucking informant against this guy less than a month before this guy kills him, but he didn't kill him because he's an informant. He killed him because that was the time. When he's working with police, he decided to sexually assault some woman. Right.

It doesn't make a lot of sense. It makes more sense that he found out he's working for the cops and he killed him. That's an obvious thing. Hawaii's pretty far removed. But is vigilante justice they're illegal? Is that what it? Yeah, I'm sure. No, it's not.

No, it can't be. But it's, it's, it would definitely be. Justification to try to minimize it. If you're sitting before a judge. Yeah. And it's, did you kill a police informant because you knew they were a police informant? Or did you kill someone as retaliation for sexually assaulting a friend of yours is a way different sentencing thing completely. So the family's version, Lepaka's family, said it's bullshit.

They're trying to cover up their own incompetency. And that's why they're doing this, essentially. That's why they're taking that story. Now, what they do, the one man who said he helped dispose of the body. There's also a second guy who helped dispose of the body. Oh, Jesus. They bring him in and talk to him, and he has the same story as the first guy that he was coerced into going over there, basically. And they make a deal to give these two immunity to testify against Martin.

Okay. The helpers here. It wasn't their idea. Okay. Now, the official story, they talk to Martin, they talk to the two helpers, and they build, this is the, police official narrative of what's going on, the prosecution's narrative, okay? Okay. Here we go. Between sometime between November 30th and December 17th, 2013, so before the first raid, which would mean the cops are completely incompetent. They say that, but that's what's

in the indictment. They say that between that, Martin arranged to meet LaPaca. We don't know why or how or what the pretext of it was. But basically, they figure that it was, you know, some kind of drug buy meeting or something like that that he was working with the cops on. So they don't know if it's, they don't understand what it is. Or if it was a social call, they're not sure.

But either way, it gets him to the house. Lepaka shows up at Martin Booth's house, walks into the garage, and we know for a fact that Lepaka had his ukulele on him, was holding him. Oh. Okay. The ukulele will find out why.

Now, there's a confrontation where Booth confronts Lipaka in the garage, and there's some verbal altercation. Like I said, this is the official narrative. Per Martin's telling, Lepaka here, basically starts getting angry and aggressive toward Martin Booth. Oh, he's an aggressor. And tried to swing his ukulele at Martin Booth. tried to hit him with the ukulele. Again, like we discussed, might not be the greatest weapon for that. No one, this guy's got rifles.

Yes. So he went over to a major meth distributor's garage to confront him and then attack him with the ukulele. He doesn't sound like a likely story. But that's what happened. So Martin said he then, he had a hammer and he had a 9mm handgun that was loaded on him. So he had two weapons on him. So that's the guy you're going to try to hit with. with a ukulele.

Right. Yeah. So at that point, he said, Martin said that he hit him with the hammer when Lopaka tried to hit him with the ukulele. And then he shot him twice. Okay. Because, you know, obviously he was still a huge threat

after he's been hit with a hammer and he's holding a ukulele, you know. Yeah. Yeah, that's the guy you're afraid of. So then they said that at that point, we don't know the order here. He died on the floor. floor. Now, Martin goes back and forth of whether he shot him first or hit him with the,

with the hammer first. Oh. Seems like the hammer would probably be the thing that would come first. You should in response to something swung at you? Yeah. You build. You know, if you shoot somebody twice, you don't really need any other weapons at that point, probably.

Yeah. That's probably it there. So he's got a fractured skull and two gunshot wounds. After the killing, basically he calls these. These other guys are there, and he tells them to help him. They wrap Lopaka's body in plastic, and they help Martin Booth take the body to the lava field. One of them does. The other stays in the garage and cleans up the scene.

And evidently is amazing. According to the prosecution, this fucking guy is Mr. Clean. I need him to come over. He's magical, and he comes up with a bald head and makes everything disappear. Come clean my house, sir. Please. So basically they said that that's what happened there. And they said that the man, one of the men who claimed he was coerced into the killing was then forced to help dump the body.

And then the other one was the cleaner. So that's the official story that the prosecution is going to take into the. And this was all predicated on Martin Booth being angry at him over a sexual assault allegation. of one of his friends. That's what the prosecutor is going to do, huh? That's what they're, which is crazy. That's, but that's the only people. They have basically a bunch of people who are, quote, there, and that's all of their story,

because that's, I'm sure Martin told them what to say. Yeah. And that's what we do. Now, July 2014, he pleads to all the other charges against him. The 24. He pleads guilty to second degree assault, first degree terroristic threatening, third degree promoting a dangerous drug, possession of drug paraphernalia,

failure to have a place to keep a pistol or revolver, possessing a firearm when ownership or possession is prohibited, first degree methamphetamine, trafficking, and first degree bail jumping. That's a lot. October 2014, he sentenced for those charges. You, sir, may fuck off five years for second degree assault, then concurrently to that,

so at the same time, five years for the terroristic threatening, the dangerous drug, the paraphernalia, 10 years for firearms charges, then 20 years with a mandatory of eight for the meth trafficking, plus $36,000 in fees, plus a separate consecutive five-year term for bail jumping. So he's got 25 years he's facing. He has to do. He has to do. And he's 55 years old.

Holy shit. I mean, his life is over. Well, I mean, with the lack of stress, maybe not. He could live to be a hundred twenty. You never know. So the murder trial is now set for November. Oh my God. So now he's got a murder trial on top of all of that shit.

This guy is a bad guy. So at that point, he decides, I got it. Fuck it, I'll plead guilty. What's the difference at this point? I'm never getting out anyway. I'm going to be 70 something when I get out, maybe from all this shit. And he's got a huge criminal record, so there's no guarantee they're going to parole him. Yeah.

Yeah. So the prosecutors agree to let him plead guilty to second-degree murder. And in exchange, they dropped the enhanced sentencing measure that would have denied him parole forever. So the only thing is they can't sentence him to life without parole. That's part of the deal. So they do that. And at the same time, the prosecutor as well agrees to, quote, remain silent before the parole board on how much time he must serve. So when he goes up, because the Hawaii, basically the Hawaii parole people, they decide when you're going to be eligible for parole.

We got Aloha in our government, too, in our penalty phase. So that's part of it is they, what they do, they make this deal all the time, basically. We won't part of their, yeah, you can negotiate anything if you're negotiating a deal. Just stay out of it and let us manage whether or not he gets in our stays out. You won't come to my parole hearings and bring your folder and tell them what a bad guy I am, basically. Now, the family can still do that, but not the prosecutor. So that's the idea. Later on, by the way, this prosecutor, I believe, will end up dying of cancer well before that anyway.

At a young age, she had like a rare form of cancer and died at like 44, I believe. So that's brutal. So basically, in the plea, he booth does not contest the prosecution's factual basis because it's advantageous to him. It's his story. That's also part of the deal is that his story. is the narrative that goes before the judge of what happened, which is... That's unbelievable. Crazy.

Yeah. That they didn't say, fuck that. He's a scumbag drug dealer who killed a guy because he's an informant rather than this attempt at noble murder that he's trying to fall out here. 700 shows. I've never heard this as a thing that happens. It's crazy. I'm telling Hawaii's different.

You're not kidding. They're different, man. They're very chill. A little more laid back. So he gets put in for sentencing now. And Debbie Ryder, and here comes the hammer. here. Debbie Ryder, who is Lopaka's mom, she comes in and says, quote, you are inhumane to take someone's life like you did my son. He was a kind and loving person. He was God's child.

Lopaka believed in him and he tried his best throughout his 37 years to apply what the Lord guided him to do. You will have nightmares and you will have flashbacks for murdering my son. thing is, I don't think this guy will. I don't think so either. The motherfucker's cold-blooded. I don't think he cares. You need to put God in your heart so he can help you live the rest of your life behind bars, and my family will make sure of that.

And in the end, only God will judge you according to your actions and the way you choose to live your life. So good luck in prison. It's between you and your God now. We'll show up at every parole hearing and make sure you ain't ever getting out. See you in so many years. See you there. Now, the defense attorney says, okay, consider he has a history of abuse in his past. He was a kid.

He's 55 years old at this point. He has a history of abuse, but he can change. Lots of people turn a complete new leaf when they're, what, 63? It's just completely different people, right? That's past midlife crisis, right? A little bit, yeah, I would say. It's you only get more so, whatever you are. Whatever that is, you're just digging your heels in.

Yep. But he says, quote, I would ask that this court in any sentencing of Mr. Booth, remember he's a man who has made mistakes, but who is redeemable based on what the fuck, I don't know what he's talking about. Yeah. He shot a man, bludgeoned him and threw him off a cliff. But he knows how to make a real good batch of meth, Jimmy. I mean, that's a skill. Damn good chef. Damn good chef.

He's redeemable and has expressed his knowledge that what he did is wrong and therefore he's able to change. He's not a psychopath, they're saying. He's not someone who should be discarded, but should be looked at as someone who may change and redeem his life. If you're 55 killing people, we don't think. You know what? We'll put you on a shelf until you're dead. I don't care.

Yeah, we don't need you anymore. Then he gets up and speaks himself. Awesome. He said Lepaka was a very talented and loving person. He was a friend of mine. I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do to change that and what I've done. And for that, I am sorry and there's no excuse.

Which is exactly what you should say. Yeah. He should have said what I, you know, sorry I also tried to say he was a rapist on top of that. But we'll leave it at that. He's a good person and I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have done that. You accused him of rape. Yeah, but the way you're supposed to.

The judge wants to hear, I'm sorry and there's no excuse. Yeah. So that party got out correctly even though the rest of it was hedging like a month. motherfucker. Yeah. So the judge has words herself for him. Quote, Mr. Booth, you are, you ruthlessly murdered Robert, Robert Kaua Lepaka, Ryder.

He was a son, a grandson, a brother, a nephew, a cousin, a friend, and he positively touched the lives of countless others. By your account, you assumed the role of judge, jury, and executioner for a crime that Mr. Ryder did not admit to have committed or for which he had. not been found guilty by a jury of his peers. In words, you just took somebody's word for it. And that's the official. In reality, he probably didn't even do that.

Right. That's the thing that's so annoying is rather than saying you're a scumbag meth dealer who heard someone was trying to get you busted for dealing meth and you killed them. They make it sound like it was some kind of misguided attempt at nobility, which is insanity. Fucking stupid. This is very similar sounding to, I mean, and it's only because, the judge can't go another direction because that's the official. This is the narrative the prosecutor presented to it.

That's it. This is what it happened. This is what it sounds like would have happened in that case where they, was that in Alaska where they went and fucking murdered a man because they said he was a rapist? Yes, it was. Yeah. You get out of the mainland. But thankfully that prosecutor was like, I don't know anything about that.

You murdered a person. Yeah, I don't know. That's not proven. So fuck off. They just took his word and said, well, if he pleads guilty, whatever. We'll take whatever narrative he wants to give. we get a guilty plea. She then continued, today you are held accountable to a society for your cruel and senseless actions. And ironically, it will test the fabric of this community. You are

extended the benefit of the rule of law, of the rule of law that rules that even if your life, what is this? Oh, it's hard to see here. Okay, yeah, that even if your life is precious, it does so without expectation that you will change or have remorse for your crime. What the law hopes, I think, is that at some point a seed of conscience will germinate from your dark heart and you will grow a full appreciation of the harm that you have caused. And through that appreciation, you may find a meaningful life in prison. You, sir, may fuck off life in prison with the possibility of parole. See if we can grow some remorse in you like a fucking peatry dish.

Germinate like a peach seed. You put in a wet paper towel and put on the fucking window cell for a week. From your dark heart. Gross. That is not good. So life with the possibility of parole. Now that runs concurrently with the rest of it. So basically it just wiped out all the rest of it.

That shit doesn't count anymore. He's credited with some time served. and the Hawaii Paroleing Authority will determine when he's eligible for parole. Now, the state of Hawaii does not have long-term prison facilities. There's not a lot of room there. He gets sent.

This is amazing for a guy who lived in Hawaii and probably like that lifestyle. This is the most punishment you could give him because this would kill me. I can't imagine I would do to him. Leavenworth. Worse. The Sowarro Correctional Center.

Where the hell is that? Civic Corps, so it's a private prison, so for-profit prison in Arizona. Eloy. Oh, no way. For-profit prison in the middle of the fucking desert. A horrible one. That's the worst place you could put someone is there. His food will suckle of shit medical care, even worse than the state of Arizona provides,

which is, I mean, one of the worst in the country. But can you imagine how bad that is? Yeah, I guarantee the drive. side of Hawaii doesn't have shit to the dry side of evil. Yeah, you will not see a rain drop. Never mind, never mind the rainy season. You won't see anything. The storm is dust, man.

Now the family gets real pissed off, Lepaka's family, and publicly comes out saying that they think the department leaked that their son was an informant. That's why the murder happened and they covered it up by this horseshit sexual assault narrative. So basically, they claim that someone in the department let it slip either directly or indirectly to persons being investigated. Like, hey, we have a guy on, we have an informant so we know what happened. That guy put two and two together that the only guy he talked to was La Paca and then spread the word. And then Martin takes care. Exactly. So they said that the, that possibly they might have said it to another police officer not involved in the investigation.

and they might have let it slip. Shit. So who knows? That's the thing about these informants. Remember the wire in the wire? People going back and forth and you never know who's leaking or who's on the outside or can't trust these fucking people. They claim that the Constitution violation as under the 14th Amendment due process clause, specifically that the state created danger theory. And even more specifically, the danger creation exception for the general.

rule that the government has no obligation to protect citizens from third parties. That's a law, by the way. The government has no obligation to protect you. None. None. The police have no obligation to protect you. Why does it say protect on the side of that fucking car? That is not an official thing.

That is just a sticker they put on a car. That's for good feelsies. That's for good feelsies. This was taken to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court said they have zero. zero fucking obligation to protect you

at all from anything. Nothing. So, yeah, that's what you pay for, everybody. So basically, they alleged that

they knew what was going on, basically. They knew of Boots criminal history. They knew he was dangerous. They knew he was pointing guns at people, had access to guns,

sold meth, did not want to go back to prison for selling meth. They would probably do whatever it took to make that happen. So, so they sue,

for failure to protect the informant's identity, disclosure of his identity to someone else. The problem is now they have to prove that. They have to prove, so you have to find who the hell it was told to or anything like that. They also say that the county and the police department initially hid the nature and circumstances of Lopaka's death in an attempt to conceal their complicity and responsibility for the murder.

Oh, that's an allegation. Well, I mean, think about it. They said, oh, shit, this guy's a, informant two months ago and he was just murdered by our target who we told him to fucking look at. How'd he find out? That's what you got to go with. Not good.

Yeah. So basically, by the way, that Supreme Court case is called DeShaney v. Winnebago County. Now, there is a narrow exception to that that the police don't have to protect you. If a government official affirmatively places you in danger, you wouldn't have otherwise faced if that danger is known or obvious. and if the official acts with deliberate indifference to it, then the state has a duty, and breaching that duty can be a civil rights violation,

which sounds like exactly what happened here, in my opinion. Now, it's the danger creation. It's from another case called Kennedy v. City of Ridgefield in 2006. Go ahead and check that out if you were a real law fucking dark here. So the lawsuit attempts, says that they fraudulently covered everything up and did everything like that. So they said, we understand the public information disseminated by the state as motive for the murder.

We do not believe that information to be correct. That's the state's position is that's not what happened, basically. They said, we're still in the process of investigating all matters, all matters concerning this. In other words, if we let it go long enough, they'll forget about it, hopefully. The state wants it dismissed and says it's all bullshit. So here's what happens. They grant the, basically, they dismiss some part. of it and keep some other parts of it.

They dismiss the claim, a bunch of different claims about negligence that caused him to be attacked and murdered. Individual plaintiffs claim that the county's negligence caused his pain and suffering. Their negligent supervision claim, negligent hiring claim, negligent retention claim, negligent training claim, and punitive damages against the defendant county. But they are. There's also ones that are dismissed but can be amended. That is that the brothers sue about the request for damages.

And there's something about standing, whether they have the standing to do this as brothers. Either way, here are the things they don't dismiss, though. The Section 1983 claim as legal representative of the estate of Ryder, so she has standing. The estate's negligence claim for the death of Ryder. Count two, Deborah's rioter's request for damages pursuant to the Hawaii wrongful death statute, the individual plaintiff's negligent infliction of emotional distress claim. So a bunch of things like that. There's nine different claims that they allow to go forward in this lawsuit. Now, what we seem, what seems to have happened is there seems to have been a settlement and a private one that is not public.

Yeah. Once again, it's very advantageous for the state to give her some money on the terms that you shut the fuck up and don't say that we let. a goddamn informant get murdered because then who's going to want to be an informant, basically. So that's what ended up happening. So it looks like the family got something out of this, I think. But who knows? Because basically, they wouldn't have let that lawsuit just drop. And that's the last anyone hears of it.

So it seems like a under the table's quick settlement out of court. So there you go, everybody. That is Kauai. Hey, Hawaii. And there's a nice place in Hawaii where it doesn't rain a lot. but ukulele music is the perfect compliment to it. So it's shocking. It's crazy.

It's fucking crazy. That's shocking. That is disturbing. I mean, fast and loose is not even, I mean, not even begins to scratch the surface of how they were playing this shit,

these cops. I want to know so much more about what corrupt shit had to go on in Hawaii. There's got to be so much corrupt shit happening there. Think about what happens in small towns. We've done how many episodes

where there's some corrupt stuff going on. What do you think happens on a goddamn in a small town on an island in the middle of fucking, where they have their own kind of thing. Where nobody goes. Yeah, exactly. Everything's under the rug there. That's so scary. It's fucking crazy. And it feels like all they really

give a shit about is make it so the tourists aren't scared to come to Hawaii. That's it. Make it go away. Yeah. Everything else can get put to the wayside. So there you go, everybody. That is Hawaii a crazy-ass episode. If you enjoyed that, get on whatever app you're on. Give us five stars. NetFle. That thumbs up helps a lot too.

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