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Man sentenced in
By Debra Barayuga
mistaken-identity killing
Star-BulletinOne family lost a son. Yesterday, another family got their son back.
But there was no bitterness, only tears shed by the Patrick Fuller family of Waimanalo yesterday at the sentencing of the man who shot Fuller in a case of mistaken identity.
In a letter to the court, Winona Fuller forgave Chad Barboza, 21, for taking her 31-year-old son from her, saying nothing could bring him back. She requested no jail time for Barboza.
"She gave back to our family what we couldn't give back to her," said Winnie Lucero, Barboza's fiancee and the mother of Barboza's 2-year-old daughter.
Circuit Judge Richard Perkins sentenced Barboza yesterday to 26 consecutive weekends in prison, equal to six months, as a condition of five years probation.
He will begin serving his weekends Feb. 18. Perkins also ordered Barboza, 21, to pay nearly $5,800 restitution to Winona Fuller, plus $4,000 to the victim's criminal compensation fund.
He also will be required to pay nearly $8,500 restitution, which includes lost wages, to Robin Roberts, who was beaten by Barboza in a confrontation in 1996.
The judge also ordered Barboza to write letters of apology to the Fuller family and Roberts.
Barboza pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter and had been looking at a maximum 20 years in prison, and a five or 10-year term for second-degree assault and first-degree attempted assault in an unrelated 1996 case. He had originally been charged with second-degree murder.
Fuller had gone to Barboza's Kaneohe home just before 1 a.m. on Jan. 19, 1999, and was calling out to him when Barboza apparently shot him. Barboza believed he had shot a man who had been threatening him and his family over some money owed to him.
The man, identified as Craig Domingo, allegedly had killed Barboza's dog a month earlier and had left a message on Barboza's answering machine bragging about killing the dog, saying "it was just the beginning," said Howard Luke, Barboza's attorney.
Barboza was only trying to protect himself, his girlfriend and young daughter in his own home, Luke said. Barboza didn't know he had shot friend Patrick Fuller until police later told him.
Fuller and Domingo had similar physical characteristics. But the similarity ends there.
Yesterday, a tearful Barboza apologized to Fuller's mother and siblings for his actions and said he was also touched by Winona Fuller's letter.
"If I could, I wish I could change his place into my place," he said.
