‘Prison
rehabilitation
flawed’
So contends convicted
By Linda Hosek
murderer Frank Janto
Star-BulletinShackled in leg irons and handcuffs, Frank Charles Janto hung his head for most of a hearing to set his minimum prison term for murdering a Wahiawa woman on a routine walk.
But when Janto heard parole board member Mary Tiwanak say that he had a pattern of violence that the board didn't think it could fix, he snapped back.
"If nobody gets off their butts to give inmates rehabilitation, where are they going to get it?" he said yesterday at Halawa Correctional Facility.
Janto, who also has convictions for raping a child, assaulting a 63-year-old woman and stealing a car, suggested that inmates become violent if prisons treat them like animals.
But board member Lani Garcia quickly rejected Janto's assertion, saying that the state had invested thousands of dollars toward his rehabilitation.
"From our point of view, this is not the failure of the system," she said. "This is Mr. Janto's failure."
City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle argued first during the 20-minute hearing, asking for a 100-year minimum, the longest ever requested by the state.
Such a minimum would require that the 35-year-old Janto serve 33 years or a third of the term before he apply for review.
Carlisle said he sought the "absolute maximum possible without being absurd," adding that his request was in line with a law that allowed a defendant with four felonies to have a 30-year minimum.
The board last year handed down its highest minimum of 70 years to Big Island resident Joseph O'Neill, convicted of the August 1994 murder of James Dunne, 46.
O'Neill, 33, beat Dunne with a sledgehammer and sexually assaulted him after he was dead.
Board Chairman Al Beaver said it was reasonable for the board to set Janto's minimum at 70 years or higher. He said the board would release its decision in a few weeks.
In the attack, Janto beat Bongak "Jackie" Koja to death about 3:45 a.m. June 9, 1997, during her routine walk in front of Leilehua High School.
He admitted to police that he had smoked crystal methamphetamine for three days before running into Koja and became angry when she used pepper spray on him.
Janto said he punched her, chased her toward the school, rammed her head into the pavement and buried her under rubbish in a Dumpster behind the cafeteria.
William Bento, Janto's attorney, urged board members to consider Janto's background, drug addition and circumstances surrounding the crime.
"He has been incarcerated since he was a juvenile, and he was taught that he had to be violent to survive," Bento said.
Bento said Janto didn't plan to murder Koja but reacted "in a way he shouldn't have done" after she sprayed him.
"All he asks for is that at some point he earn the right to be paroled," Bento said. "I don't believe 100 years is appropriate."
Janto told board members he didn't want to attend the hearing, suggesting that he didn't think it would matter.
He described his background, saying his brother died in Vietnam, his parents divorced, he sold his body on the streets and was sexually abused.
"I had no guidance," he said. "How I learned right from wrong was through my mistakes."
Janto said he didn't want to make excuses, but also felt that a 100-year minimum was "kinda way out there," adding that he knew of inmates convicted of double murders who had minimums of 50 to 60 years.
Tiwanak interrupted Janto, saying she didn't think he realized the profound impact his crime had on the community.
"There's something really wrong," she said of his violent pattern. "We don't think we can fix it."
Janto said he was willing to pay the consequences.
Bento said after the hearing that whether Janto was "fixable" was up to him to establish as he served his term.
Carlisle said the system offered Janto numerous opportunities to rehabilitate, but none worked.
He said repeat offenders like Janto believe "it's never their fault."
Carlisle also said incarcerating Janto until age 68 will cost taxpayers more than $1 million in 1998 dollars.
