Kosi gets life
without parole

The killer of two gets eight
life terms including one without
parole for 1997 murders

By Gary T. Kubota
Star-Bulletin

WAILUKU -- The aunt of slain 17-year-old Aisha Tolentino said if Hawaii had a death penalty law, she would want Daniel Kosi to be executed.

Tolentino, niece of Regina Ayonayon, was stabbed to death while being held hostage in a Maui condominium in 1997.

Kosi, 25, convicted of the gunshot killing of Eric Vinge and the subsequent stabbing of Tolentino, was sentenced yesterday to eight life-in-prison terms, including one without the possibility of parole.

By Gary Kubota, Star-Bulletin
Daniel Kosi
CONVICTED MURDERER

The sentence also included punishment for Kosi's kidnapping and attempted murder of Abra Pearsall, who witnessed the Aug. 3 gunshot murder of Vinge at his Paukulalo home.

Tolentino was stabbed to death 12 days after Vinge's murder, as police attempted to negotiate with Kosi for the freedom of her and two other hostages in the Kihei condominium.

Ayonayon and Tolentino's mother, Dodie Abafo, said Kosi showed no remorse during the sentencing yesterday in Maui Circuit Court.

"He was smiling at me," Abafo said.

Before the sentencing, Abafo held an urn with her daughter's ashes and spoke directly to Kosi, who was seated between two guards.

By Gary Kubota, Star-Bulletin
Dodie Abafo holds an urn containing the ashes of her daughter,
Aisha Tolentino, who was stabbed to death on Maui in 1997.

Abafo called Kosi a "low life" for shooting Vinge without a fair fight and for stabbing her daughter, who was unable to defend herself because her hands were tied.

"You are a coward," Abafo said.

Vinge's father, Gary, said he continues to feel the the pain of losing his son but the harsh sentencing helps to ease it.

Vinge said the real injury was to his son's children, ages 4, 6, and 7, who are now without a father.

Kosi declined to make a statement. But his attorney Joseph Mottl III pointed out Kosi's difficult childhood, with some family members having a history of substance abuse and mental illness.

Maui Circuit Judge Shackley Raffetto said many people have faced similar difficulties but have not turned to murder.

Raffetto said the sentence was to make sure the community would never be exposed to Kosi again.

Deputy Prosecutor Robert Rivera said Kosi enjoyed killing, as shown in a tape-recorded conversation between him and a hostage negotiator who sought to free Tolentino.

"You heard him laugh," Rivera said.

Rivera said in a letter to a grandmother, Tolentino described how she was hoping to return to Lanai for her 18th birthday.

She did return, but in an urn, three days before her birthday, he said.

Abafo said she feels an emptiness and keeps thinking of the way her daughter died.

"A part of my soul went with her," she said.