Sex offender gets 30 years
The elderly victim, of Moiliili, says that she lives under constant fear in her own home
An elderly Moiliili woman said she is a prisoner in her mind because of a knifepoint rape last year by a neighbor who was sentenced yesterday to 30 years in prison.
The victim, who had shared fruits and vegetables from her garden with David Baldaino and his wife, could not bring herself to be at his sentencing hearing yesterday, but she submitted to the court a brief statement: "I am now 86 years old. I had imagined my final years to be peaceful and stress-free. You have taken that away from me. Every night, I barricade myself inside my bedroom and wake up with a start at any sound. Then come the anxious sleepless hours as I recall your violation upon me," she wrote.
"Your flagrant act has imprisoned both of us," she continued. "Mine is a prison of the mind because I can't erase the memory of what you did, and yours is the actual place where you will spend your days."
Circuit Court Judge Richard Perkins granted the prosecution's request for extended and consecutive terms for Baldaino, an auto mechanic who pleaded guilty in January to five counts, including first- degree sexual assault and kidnapping and failing to comply with sex offender registry requirements under an agreement in which he avoided receiving a life term of imprisonment.
Deputy Prosecutor Lori Wada argued for extended and consecutive terms yesterday, noting that court records indicate Baldaino has been a sexual predator since the age of 5 when he sexually assaulted another child.
In 1998 he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl on Kauai and was ordered to serve five years in prison. He was paroled after four years but had his parole revoked because he failed to complete sex offender treatment, Wada said.
He later admitted he said all the right things the therapists wanted to hear because he just wanted to get through the treatment.
"His history speaks volumes in the state's rendition of this defendant as a sexual predator from a 5-year-old victim to an 86-year-old," she told the court.
In the Moiliili case, Baldaino admitted that after his wife refused to have sex with him, he initially targeted a nurse who lived upstairs from him, but she was not home. So he broke into the then-85-year-old neighbor's home on Old Waialae Road because she was weak and vulnerable, Wada said.
Wada said since the incident, the woman lives "under lock and key." She installed extra locks around the home, including on her bedroom doors. She has changed all the jalousies in her house and installed locks on windows and motion sensor lighting.
"Her entire life has been shattered because of what he has done to her," Wada said.
Deputy public defender Debra Loy noted that letters submitted to the court describe Baldaino as a "fine upstanding citizen," but she noted, "He has demons. He has personal demons that have led him into violent crime that he is very remorseful for."
Baldaino declined to address the court yesterday, but Loy read a statement he submitted apologizing to his victim. "I can only hope and pray that she can put behind her the pain and undue stress my actions have caused and that my incarceration and willingness to address the issues and problems of my life that led to my behavior will in some way offer to her a form of closure and peace," he wrote.
Wada said she will ask the Hawaii Paroling Authority to order Baldaino to serve all 30 years because of his history.