FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COMAnton Myklebust, who attempted to withdraw from his plea agreement yesterday during a hearing in Circuit Court, listened as his attorney spoke. CLICK FOR LARGE |
|
Kidnap suspect tries to change guilty plea
A former driver for Big Brothers Big Sisters who pleaded guilty last year to kidnapping a 17-year-old girl and injecting her with methamphetamine as he drove her around Ala Moana and Waikiki for several hours now wants to go to trial.
Anton Myklebust, 28, took the witness stand yesterday in Circuit Judge Karl Sakamoto's courtroom asking to withdraw his plea, saying he was pressured into it.
He said his former attorney, Keith Shigetomi, provided scant police reports and withheld toxicology reports showing the girl had methamphetamine in her system.
"I'm willing to plead guilty to things I'm technically guilty of -- credit card fraud and getting high with a minor," he said. "Anything else I'm not admitting guilt to because there's no guilt."
Myklebust was indicted in October 2004 on 10 counts of sexual assault, kidnapping, second-degree robbery and credit card theft.
He said he never wanted to accept a plea deal because he believed he was innocent and wanted all the charges dropped.
After Myklebust's guilty plea, Shigetomi said Myklebust maintained that the sexual encounter was consensual.
According to a police affidavit, the girl reported that Myklebust repeatedly sexually assaulted her in the back of the delivery truck during stops and also injected her with a substance that he told her was "ice."
She tried to fight him off but he threatened to knock her out, kill her and dump her body.
She said she felt she had been poisoned and was going to die when Myklebust told her the substance he was injecting in her was "ice."
Myklebust acknowledged during questioning by Deputy Prosecutor Thalia Murphy that he told the court that he had gone over the evidence against him with his attorney, discussed all available defenses, was satisfied with his attorney's representation and was not pressured into pleading.
He also said his attorney had discussed the report from the Sex Abuse Treatment Center where the girl had gone for treatment after her ordeal. That report indicated the girl had needle marks in her arm consistent with what she told police.
Prosecutors declined to comment afterward on Myklebust's comments, noting the court had not yet ruled.
In its briefs, the state said the reason the girl had meth in her system was because he had injected her with it.
Sakamoto did not rule on Myklebust's request and was to continue the hearing to an unspecified date.