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Hawai'i Skies

Today's Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Judy Peckenpaugh on Kauaʻi. "The calm AFTER the storm."

To submit your Hawai'i Skies photo, visit us 

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<title>Hawaiʻi Skies: After the storm</title>

Today's Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Judy Peckenpaugh on Kauaʻi.

Hawaiʻi Skies: After the storm

Today&#039;s Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Judy Peckenpaugh on Kauaʻi. &quot;The calm AFTER the storm.&quot; To submit your Hawai&#039;i Skies photo, visit us online or email: general@alohastatedaily.com

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

In the late 1970s, the Miano family left their home in Brockton, Mass. without the family patriarch. 

While Richard Miano Sr. was incarcerated, his wife and three children moved to O‘ahu seeking a fresh start. Though he was a loving and involved father, the people he associated himself with eventually caught up to him. 

"We knew that he was involved with a lot of stuff," his son, Richard Jr., better known to the football world as Rich Miano, recently told Aloha State Daily when asked about his father. "I'm not sure we knew that he was gonna end up in jail, but we knew that it was a crazy lifestyle. I've witnessed things that nobody should see with their own eyes growing up. ... People shooting people, beating up people with golf clubs. All kinds of mayhem, based upon what he did for a living, which was own nightclubs and bars and his associations with mafia and everything else was just, yeah. It was problematic."

[{"type":"text","text":"Brockton was all Rich Miano knew during his childhood. "}]

"Born and raised, never moved. Rarely traveled. Had no idea what Polynesia was. Basically, we're in one of the most segregated parts of the country," Miano recalled. "Coming to Hawaii was like, 'whoa.' Being a minority and didn't know the culture, didn't know anything about Hawai‘i, it took two years to adjust."

Miano enrolled at Kaiser High School with just a handful of weeks remaining in his sophomore year. He took the occasional "haole" ribbing from classmates as he adjusted to a new locale. Homesick but realizing the family wasn't going back to Brockton, Miano eventually acclimated to his new environment. It helped that he lived with his best friend, younger brother Robert, and the two navigated their new lives together. 

As a junior at Kaiser, Rich Miano joined the swimming and diving team, and performed well as a diver, competing in the state tournament. But in an effort to make more friends at school, he decided to give football a try for his senior year. 

"I just wanted to be one of the boys," he recalled. 

Though he hadn't played the sport since he was a youth, Miano quickly readjusted back to the sport. Robert saw how much Rich had enjoyed being back on the gridiron and said he'd join him on the team soon. Richard Miano Sr. had also rejoined the family on the Islands after his release from prison. Things were looking up for the Miano family. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Then, tragedy struck. "}]

Robert and Rich Miano rode together to school one day. Robert told Rich he'd skip class to go to Spitting Cave but he'd be back to pick up Rich. He never returned. 

Rich Miano knew something was wrong when he never got picked up from school, but when he returned home to see countless heads slumped and in tears, he was given a piece of news he could've never fathomed prior to that point. Robert Miano passed away following an accident at Spitting Cave. He was 16 years old. 

"I just remember how sad it was for my parents and how tragic it was to realize that my best friend, my roommate, is no longer there," Miano recalled. "I just saw the anguish and just the hurt in my parents and my sister, myself, and realized that nothing worse could ever happen in life for your parents and just your whole family in general."

Before Rich Miano became an all-conference and honorable mention All-American defensive back at the University of Hawai‘i, and before his 11-year NFL career, he was just a kid who wanted to honor his brother. 

"I think that was the motivating factor in part of the success — the fact that you're now playing for your brother as well," Rich Miano said. "You're playing for your family. You're trying to keep focused in terms of what you're doing in life, because otherwise you're just thinking about being sad and not trying to make the most out of your life."

Despite coming from an era where maintaining a tough exterior was paramount, Rich Miano never shied away from the heartbreak. 

I don't care how tough you are, whether you're a football player or you're a member of the mafia or whatever. When a family member dies, I think that crying and all that other stuff, it's just part of life. We cried openly. We weep openly. Even the thought now, when I talk about it, I get choked up talking about my mom, my dad, my brother, and my sister," Miano said between sniffles. 

Miano enjoyed his one season of high school ball at Kaiser. More importantly, he itched to keep playing. He joined the University of Hawai‘i football team as a walk-on, wreaking havoc on the scout team. At the time, walk-ons were forbidden from eating with the rest of the team, per NCAA rules. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"\"We'd eat s***,\" Miano recalled."}]

Miano, who also had to pay his way through school, worked valet at a local restaurant at nights and sometimes saw his teammates on scholarship come by and wave to him. "I'm busting my a** just to have $100 in my pocket," he says. 

Hawai‘i was Miano's only choice at the time as far as school and football were concerned. He didn't want to leave his parents so quickly after Robert's death. 

"The trajectory of my life changed because of that. I loved football, but I couldn't leave. I couldn't leave my mom and dad. I couldn't leave the state of Hawai‘i," Miano said.

Miano's first opportunity to earn meaningful playing time was during the 1983 season, a chance he did not squander. After leading the team in tackles and interceptions in 1983, he appeared on the radar of NFL scouts. He replicated his success in 1984, racking up a team-leading 110 tackles earning All-WAC and All-Coast selections for the second year in a row. He was selected in the sixth round of the 1985 NFL Draft by the New York Jets. His $30,000 signing bonus was a far cry from his valet days, and by the end of his rookie year, he purchased the first of his handful of O‘ahu homes. 

After stints with the New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles, the final stop in Miano's 11-year NFL career was with the Atlanta Falcons, where he played for another former University of Hawai‘i player in head coach June Jones. Following his retirement, he returned to the Islands, where one of his jobs was as a radio broadcast analyst for UH football games. He watched from up top at 

 as the 1998 team suffered through an 0-12 season. 

When Jones got the UH job in 1999, he plucked Miano to coach the team's defensive secondary despite having no prior coaching experience at the collegiate level. In less than 10 years, the Warriors went from 0-12 to 1998 to a 12-0 regular season in 2007, led by one of Miano's all-time favorite recruits in quarterback Colt Brennan. 

"Colt was the best quarterback in the country. Colt could do everything, and if you looked at the film, every arm angle, every throw, there's no way that guy doesn't get $8 or $10 million in today's (NIL) market," Miano says. 

Jones departed for SMU following the 2008 Sugar Bowl and asked Miano to come with him to Dallas, but Miano's roots were already entrenched in Hawai‘i. Miano was elevated to associate head coach and stuck around in Mānoa through the 2011 season, departing when the school went in a different direction and hired Norm Chow ahead of the 2012 season. 

Miano returned to his high school alma mater, leading Kaiser to an HHSAA Division II title in 2013 before departing to pursue other ventures. 

Ever since he moved back to the Islands, Miano has been one of the go-to voices for anything and everything relating to Hawai‘i football. He's the color analyst during local broadcasts of UH football games. He's a regular on KHON2's Cover2, the state's only weekly show dedicated to high school football. In the same way Brennan was known to never turned down a picture or autograph from a fan, Miano has never turned down an interview request to discuss his passion for football in the Islands. 

Through his organization Hawai‘i Speed and Quickness, local athletes have earned thousands of dollars in scholarship money and other college opportunities. 

 in the KHON2 studio with the distinction of being named to the UH Circle of Honor for the Class of 2026. On Friday evening, he'll be one of five members officially inducted. 

"People ask me, 'Are you getting in as a player? You getting in as a coach? Are you getting in as a broadcaster?' I'll be honest. I don't know what I'm getting in as, but I'm proud of all three of those things. I'm proud of my affiliation with the University of Hawai‘i for the last 40-something years."

In recent years, Miano has lost both parents, as well as his sister, Karen. But his wife, Lori, and children Kupa‘a (born Richard III) and Siena will be there to celebrate his lasting impact on Hawai‘i football. 

Brockton and Honolulu are separated by over 5,000 miles, and there's no way teenage Rich Miano would have envisioned the life he built for himself in the Islands. Now 64, he's fully ingratiated himself to countless amounts of football players, coaches and fans across the state. 

Though his parents, sister and brother won't be there physically on Friday, Miano likes to think they'd be proud of the way he turned tragedy into triumph. 

"They would have never expected when we moved to Hawai‘i to be part of this community in such a big way," Miano said. "I do think they're still watching down from above, and they're proud. I think that I've I've reached my genetic potential in football. I don't know if I've reached my giving potential, but we certainly try, and we'll continue to try. So the more that comes our way, the more we can help other people. I always pray to them each and every day, and I hope that they are watching and they're proud."

Rich Miano Robert Miano 101526

<title>Rich Miano overcomes personal tragedy en route to becoming Hawai‘i football staple</title>

Miano lost his only brother, Robert, before his senior season of high school football at Kaiser. It set him on a path to an 11-year NFL career and a reputation as an Island football legend that will be cemented with an induction into the UH Circle of Honor on Friday.

Rich Miano overcomes personal tragedy en route to becoming Hawai‘i football staple

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Crime & Courts

The Honolulu Police Department will shift 100 officers to patrol duties beginning November.

 announced Thursday that the department will move 100 officers from duties throughout HPD as a shift to get as many officers back on the road as possible.

“It means more officers on the road,” Lazar said. “It also means officers are available to respond when someone calls for help. It means we’re working to reduce response times and getting officers to those who need them sooner, and it ultimately means we can continue providing emergency police services without having to reduce our response capabilities.”

Lazar added that the move will also reduce overtime expenses. He said HPD’s overtime budget is about $6.8 million each quarter, but in the first quarter of 2026, that budget was exceeded by another $6 million.

“We just don’t have enough officers in patrol to do the work,” Lazar said. “We have beats, we have shift work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and so a lot of that overtime was spent to make sure that we have enough officers to do the work.”

The officers to be on patrol will be reallocated from throughout the department, from the chief’s office and the criminal investigations unit, to the traffic unit, training division, human resources, the narcotics and vice unit and more. Furthermore, where officers who finished field training would previously go to an additional training unit called “fourth watch,” they will now be put on patrol alongside another officer.

“Make no mistake, we still will investigate narcotics crimes,” Lazar said. “We’ll still go after gambling houses. We are still going to investigate every single type of crime that’s occurring.”

But while Lazar said the shift will not “sacrifice any ongoing investigation,” he also said that patrols are the primary focus for the time being, and investigations are secondary.

The shift does not have a specific end date. Lazar said the new state of affairs will continue for the time being as officer recruitment continues.

“There’s really no time limit on it, other than that we have to keep this in place until we have enough officers in patrol, and then we can start looking at … other elements that we need to refill again,” Lazar said.

But Lazar said officer recruitment is strong, with a class of 32 new recruits expected to graduate at the end of the month. Nonetheless, he said officer numbers are still some 200-300 short of the 2,177 officers the department is budgeted for.

The response from the rank-and-file is still unknown; Lazar said Thursday that he had informed the department as a whole about the change only about 15 minutes before the media were informed. Nonetheless, he said that “officers wanting to leave or retire [because of the change] have not crossed [his] mind.”

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi commended Lazar on his “flexibility [and] willingness to think differently,” and said his decision simultaneously addresses a financial challenge while improving public safety.

Lazar

<title>100 HPD officers to be reassigned to patrol</title>

Scores of officers will be reallocated to patrol duties next month, HPD Chief David Lazar announced Thursday.

100 HPD officers to be reassigned to patrol

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Business & Tourism

Real Estate

Doug Johnstone has led Ward Village's continued growth as president of developer Howard Hughes' Hawai‘i region, but a new promotion has him taking the national development stage.

While Johnstone will remain rooted in the Islands, continuing in the president role he's held since 2020, he also was recently named head of national development for Howard Hughes Communities.

"I've got the exciting position of taking a lot of what we've learned here, and ability to blend together team members and stakeholders in the different disciplines, and try to move forward projects and business plans that can be successful and complementary to the surrounding community," he told Aloha State Daily during an interview at his Ward Village office. "What I do here, and also in these other markets now, is try to assemble good, collaborative team members that can have the discipline that goes into underwriting, due diligence, creating the investment opportunity; working with leasing, sales, marketing, construction; and really trying to choreograph how to move these efforts forward and provide the financial analysis, the corporate reporting, the coordination that needs to happen to attract investment and ultimately move things forward and execute."

There's still a "tremendous amount of activity" happening in Honolulu with Ward Village, he says: four active projects under construction, a park underway, infrastructure work progressing, "so in Honolulu, a lot of emphasis on the execution of what we've been teeing up in recent years."

"In the post-Covid time period, a lot of what you're seeing underway now is from that continued planning and discipline and moving forward in the wake of volatility," he says. "In the last year or so, we've started to put some building blocks in place of how to move some higher-density for-sale residential projects forward in some of our other markets."

Howard Hughes Communities is the real estate platform of Howard Hughes Holdings Inc.; in addition to Ward Village, Summerlin and The Woodlands, its other assets include Bridgeland and The Woodlands Hills in the Houston area, Teravalis in greater Phoenix, and Merriweather District in Columbia, Maryland.

Johnstone isn't joking; there's plenty happening in Ward Village, which 

sold out its first eight mixed-use residential towers: Waiea, Anaha, Ae‘o, Ke Kilohana, ‘A‘ali‘i, Kō‘ula, Victoria Place and Ulana Ward Village.

New residential buildings in development or under construction include Kalae, The Launiu Ward Village, Melia Ward Village and ‘Ilima Ward Village.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Also in the past 18 months or so:"}]

Meanwhile, Ward Centre, which opened in 1982 and served the community for more than four decades, officially 

The ongoing demolition of the retail center will clear the way for 

Melia Ward Village and ‘Ilima Ward Village, 

[{"type":"text","text":"The developer broke ground on Melia and ‘Ilima late last month."}]

Ward Village marked a record year in 2025, with momentum driven by the launch of Melia Ward Village and ‘Ilima Ward Village earlier in the year.

In Hawai‘i last year, Howard Hughes contracted to sell 287 condos, which accounted for roughly $1.6 billion in future revenue, according to 

 from Howard Hughes Holdings published earlier this year. Of those pre-sales, 220 units were contracted at Melia and ‘Ilima.

What lessons will Johnstone take with him from Ward Village into his new role?

"What we've learned over time is the need to be both pioneering and practical in balancing those two things when it comes to dynamic design, but also having fundamentals that are needed to ultimately have something that is viable and can move forward," he told ASD. "Then also, a lot of what development entails is making thoughtful investments that ultimately have an incredible amount of operational intensity to them. A lot of it is establishing a game plan or a business plan on paper, but then you might spend the next six or seven years bringing that to fruition, and you can encounter both micro and macro volatility in the process, or events that you could never predict in the years prior."

But, Johnstone says, a lot of what really dictates the outcomes is how well you can navigate that as a team.

"One of the benefits of what we do at Howard Hughes is being able to take a bit more of a longer-term approach and be able to weather through some of those ups and downs, but also take the multi-year or multi-decade perspective of how what we're doing today is going to fit into a broader initiative for that overall market or masterplan."

Johnstone says the new role "complements and expands a bit of what my team here has been doing over the last 14 years."

"We've got some great colleagues that have matured over time and are taking on more and more responsibility, and a number of them are working together on some of the efforts in Summerlin and The Woodlands and Bridgeland, as an example," he explains. "It's trying to deploy some of these best practices of how we've been able to put forth a huge amount of progress in Ward Village. It's an exciting place to be to touch different markets and product types, but ultimately it's a lot of the same process and you're trying to scale it and empower team members and provide a level of consistency."

In the near-term, Johnstone says his goal is to get "everybody aligned to have that common north star of where you're going."

Johnstone, who born and raised in Honolulu, attended Punahou School and Stanford University. He joined the Ward Village team in 2012 and was named president of the Hawai‘i Region in 

As for the new position, he says it's inspiring for himself, the team and "hopefully a lot of folks progressing their careers here in Hawai‘i."

"We're really proud of the team and platform we've built here over the last 14, 15 years, both internally and externally, the careers that have grown up along with what we've been doing in Ward Village — from our own colleagues, but also on the contractor side, engineers, architects, attorneys. A lot of us have matured with this overall master plan and to be able to take some of that and try to have an impact with more people, more properties and communities, it's a great case study of what we could do here in Hawai‘i. Even though you're in the middle of the Pacific, a lot of new flexibility and opportunities are created by the world getting flatter, technology improving, a little bit more time on airplanes, but it's hopefully an inspiring thing for a lot of people that are working in the industry."

Being able to build and grow a career in Hawai‘i is "really fulfilling," Johnstone says.

While there are challenges to accomplish that, "I think that's something for a lot of early-stage career folks and a lot of accomplished students that come out of here to see it as a path that is possible with a huge amount of hard work, probably some luck in the process, but I think there's a level of optimism that hopefully we can express to folks that are trying to make it."

Doug Johnstone 2026

<title>Doug Johnstone promoted to national role with Howard Hughes Communities</title>

He'll continue in his role as president of the developer's Hawai‘i region where he's overseen the development of Ward Village since 2020.

Doug Johnstone promoted to national role with Howard Hughes Communities

For multiple years as a teenager in his native Greece, Costas Theocharidis searched for a solution to an ongoing conundrum. He excelled in volleyball and in school, but his options often included one or the other: turn professional and put his education on hold, or go to college and leave volleyball behind. 

Though aware of the NCAA as an avenue to pursue both, collegiate men's volleyball programs were only permitted to divvy up 4.5 scholarships per team at the time. Theocharidis didn't want his parents to pay for his schooling, so he wasn't going to play for anything less than a full scholarship. 

After receiving the fateful offer from University of Hawai‘i head coach Mike Wilton, Theocharidis arrived in the Islands ready to embark on a journey that became so much more than merely his college destination. Theocharidis immediately and continuously provided return on investment to the only school that offered him a full ride. The 6-foot-2 outside hitter was a first team All-American as a true freshman and the AVCA National Player of the Year as a sophomore. His junior year was capped by a national championship in 2002, the first in program history. He wowed the Hawai‘i crowds with his dynamic play. He still refers to his former teammates as his brothers for life to this day. 

"It's one of those things that when you feel deeply ingrained in the fabric of the UH community, those bonds don't just kind of fade away, right? They're always going to be there," Theocharidis told Aloha State Daily in a recent interview. "UH was the the reason why I left my small town in a rural, remote part of northeastern Greece back in '99 and made that leap of faith. I will forever be indebted to my coaches, coach Mike Wilton and his assistant Tino Reyes, for literally going all-in on me and offering me an athletic scholarship and helping realize my dream of coming to states to study and play at the college level."

Despite his accomplishments on the court in a Warrior uniform, Theocharidis' name became mired in controversy as the subject of an NCAA investigation. 

In the fall of 2003, the NCAA stripped Hawai‘i of its 2002 men's volleyball national championship. It was determined that Theocharidis played in 22 matches with other professionals in Europe before enrolling at Hawai‘i in 1999. Theocharidis did not receive any money for playing the matches in question, nor did he sign a professional contract or have an agent. Still, the NCAA ruled that Theocharidis broke amateurism rules. The University of Hawai‘i was fined $5,000 and ordered to return the 2002 championship trophy. Theocharidis was also ordered to return all of his individual awards.

Before it was taken away, Hawai‘i's four-set victory over Pepperdine in the 2002 national championship match gave the school its first-ever NCAA championship in a men's team sport. Watch the team's celebration, read about the welcome the Warriors received back home, hear about the bonds members of the team still hold dearly, then try to tell Theocharidis that championship wasn't real. 

"The championship point, I remember that very clearly," 

 "As a team, we worked really hard for it. We were basically on a three-year crusade to make it happen. Memories of a lifetime. I will never forget those memories, and it was it was pretty special moment. I would say it's up there in the top three, top five memories of all time for me in life in general. To have it taken away, obviously that was a pretty gut-wrenching experience. It's one of those things that I didn't necessarily deal with at the time, and over the years it was something that was always in the back of my mind."

Volleyball may have ended unceremoniously for 

Theocharidis, but his education continued. After earning a business administration degree at UH, he worked in private wealth management, where his first job in the field was for a firm in Mānoa. He then got a job at Merrill Lynch in Boston before briefly moving back to Europe to get a master's degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science

Following his time in London, Theocharidis worked in corporate finance in New York. His family has made Boston home for the past handful of years, and he's currently working in real estate development. He's also an assistant coach for the MIT men's volleyball team. 

As the years went on, Theocharidis still felt as though he never got closure during his time playing volleyball at UH. He spent four years cementing himself as one of the program's greats, only to see it taken away over a matter of months. Feelings of angst had festered. 

Stripped 2002 national title notwithstanding, the University of Hawai‘i men's volleyball program won national championships in 2021 and 2022. A pair of Greek standouts in outside hitter 

 and opposite Dimitrios Mouchlias were key members of the team, and Mouchlias reached out to Theocharidis. Following their conversations, Theocharidis decided to take in some UH matches at the Stan Sheriff Center during the 2023 season "for the first time in many, many years," he recalled. 

Theocharidis also went to Virginia to catch the team during the 2023 Final Four. Though Hawai‘i's quest for a threepeat was thwarted by UCLA in the national championship match, witnessing the program's rise evoked countless memories for Theocharidis, who realized he had many unresolved feelings about his time as a Warrior. Since then, he has authored a pair of books documenting his experience with UH. 

"Costas: Warrior for Life: Thriving within the chaos,"

"I do address my personal journey from Greece to Hawai‘i, and having the ride of a lifetime, discussing this whole eligibility ruling and the stripping of the championship," Theocharidis says. "It allowed me to a certain extent to get some closure on the whole thing, and it allowed me to move on with my life as well, because it's something that you cannot change. Whatever happened, happened." 

On Friday evening, all those emotions will be revisited yet again as Theocharidis becomes inducted into the UH Athletics Circle of Honor for the Class of 2026 at the Stan Sheriff Center. 

The announcement was made over a year in advance

 during a Hawai‘i women's volleyball match on Oct. 12, 2025. 

"I'm very thankful to the committee members for taking this very bold step and inducting me," he said. "When you contextualize it, you bring in the full picture of all the stuff that happened in the past, and I'm sure it was not an easy decision. I'm just hoping that the '02 team at some point will be able to join in the Circle of Honor because we did it as a team, and I was surrounded by awesome teammates."

' playing days, the nature of college athletics has changed dramatically. Most notably, the introduction of new name, image and likeness (NIL) rules in 2021 have allowed collegiate athletes to get paid, with 

. Even Baylor men's basketball center James Nnaji, the 31st overall pick of the 2023 NBA Draft, returned to play 18 games for Baylor in the 2025-2026 college basketball season. 

The new rules have caused some entities to undo past rulings, such as 

Reggie Bush getting his 2005 Heisman Trophy back

 in 2024 after being stripped of it in 2010. 

Might the ruling on the 2002 Hawai‘i men's volleyball be revisited, ending with the championship banner being re-raised in the Stan Sheriff Center rafters? 

"I have no control over those things, right? I'm just hoping that the university will step up and recognize that great team," Theocharidis said. "The controversial decision to take away the 2002 championship made me a pariah overnight in college sports. You have active student-athletes basically playing at the highest level in in the Olympics with professional teammates, obviously. And where we are nowadays, the whole concept of being a student-athlete with the existence of transfer portal and NIL, being a student is the priority, right? Getting that degree, graduating, is supposed to be the priority. At least that was my priority when I came to the to the states. I wanted to get a degree.

"I'm cautiously optimistic that the 2002 team, to a certain extent, will eventually be recognized as well, but all those things take time. I don't know when or If it's going to happen, but I'm doing the best I can to actually raise the issue, make everybody aware of that, because again, you have a new (university) president and AD. I'm hoping that at some point, we'll come full circle, and that team will be recognized, and then the banner will be re-raised in the arena."

Costas Theocharidis 169 101426

<title>Costas Theocharidis reflects on joy and pain of UH career ahead of Circle of Honor…</title>

Theocharidis, the star outside hitter from Greece who suited up for the Warriors from 2000 to 2003, will be one of five figures officially into the Circle of Honor on Friday evening at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Costas Theocharidis reflects on joy and pain of UH career ahead of Circle of Honor induction

A Maui judge sentenced a Lahaina man to 60 years in prison for reportedly sexually assaulting a child over the course of four years.

Roberto Omar Morales Andrade, 49, went on trial in July over 18 counts of sexual assault — eight counts in the first degree and another eight in the third degree. After a two-week trial, the jury unanimously returned a guilty verdict on all counts.

On Monday, Judge Kirstin Hamman handed down a sentence condemning Andrade to three consecutive 20-year sentences, giving him a release date of 2086.

According to a sentencing memorandum, Andrade repeatedly assaulted the victim, a nine-year-old girl at the time the assaults began, between 2014 and 2018. Andrade was reportedly in a relationship with the victim's mother, living in the same household for some time, and repeatedly assaulted the victim with increasing severity, offering money for sexual favors and telling the victim her mother would not believe her if she reported his actions.

In 2018, the victim, then 13 years old, described the abuse via text to another person, which was eventually read by a family member, leading to Andrade’s initial arrest, but he was released without bail pending further investigation. That investigation was reopened four years later, in 2022, leading to Andrade being arrested again.

Andrade first went to trial in 2024, but the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, causing a mistrial and allowing Andrade to be released once again pending a retrial.

At the time, Maui County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Frank Loyd Jr. urged the court to not permit Andrade’s release, as Andrade, not a U.S. citizen, was immediately placed in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and faced deportation to Mexico, which would prevent him from standing trial. Ultimately, however, Andrade’s federal deportation hearings were postponed until 2028, allowing the case to continue.

“[Andrade] took advantage of his position as an adult to manipulate a young, vulnerable victim into believing that this routine of sexual abuse was normal,” Loyd wrote. “The only way to protect … the public from further crimes of the Defendant is to incarcerate him for as long as possible.”

A victim impact statement submitted by the victim’s mother reported that her daughter was deeply emotionally traumatized by Andrade’s actions and had much of her social life curtailed “out of a very real and constant fear that the offender was stalking, watching or seeking an opportunity to approach her.”

Loyd initially called for Andrade to serve one consecutive 20-year sentence for each year he subjected the victim to abuse, for an 80-year total sentence.

“This administration is committed to pursuing justice for survivors of child sexual assault and holding offenders accountable through prosecution under the law,” said Maui Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin. “Every child deserves to be safe, protected and heard.”

I Stock 2163789360

<title>Maui man sentenced to 60 years in prison for child sex assault</title>

Roberto Omar Andrade, 49, to serve three consecutive 20-year sentences after sexually abusing a child for four years.

Maui man sentenced to 60 years in prison for child sex assault

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

When you buy one pizza, you can get the second half-off during lunch at this Waikīkī eatery.

 recently started this lunchtime deal. To take advantage of the promotion, show your server that you follow the business on Instagram.

Customers can get their second pizza or entree of equal or lesser value for 50% off every day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The promotion is valid for both dine-in and takeout.

Popular pizzas include the quatro formaggi ($24) — a medley of mozzarella and gorgonzola, ricotta, Grana Padano with basil and a side of local honey — shrimp pesto ($25) and Korean yakiniku ($26). The latter features marinated grilled short rib with mozzarella, kimchi, green onions and gochujang mayo.

Signature entrees — which are also eligible for the BOGO half-off promotion — include skillet lemon chicken ($36), homemade lasagna ($31) and homemade bolognese with pappardelle ($26). The latter is a customer favorite, and features the eatery’s homemade beef ragu sauce.

Be sure to check out the featured pizza of the month. Recent specials included maple pesto pizza ($24) — complete with Italian salami, ricotta cheese, pesto sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, Grana cheese, red pepper and maple syrup on the side — and pineapple paradise pizza ($26).

Appetito Craft Pizza and Wine Bar bogo deal 092426

<title>This Honolulu eatery has a BOGO 50% off lunchtime pizza deal</title>

Located in Waikīkī, Appetito Craft Pizza & Wine Bar launched a new buy-one-get-one half-off pizza deal during lunch only. Customers must show their server that they’re following the biz on Instagram to take advantage of this promotion.

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Hawaiʻi Skies: After the storm

Authors

ASD Staff

Reporter

More in Hawai'i Skies

Hawaiʻi Skies: Zoomed in

Hawaiʻi Skies: Canʻt wait for time in the water

Hawaiʻi Skies: Rain showers

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Most read