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Plastic-wrap killer
Cooper sentenced to
life with parole

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By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

Samuel Cooper Jr. was convicted of violent crimes committed only months after he was released on parole. For those reasons, a state judge yesterday ordered Cooper, 43, to spend life in prison with the possibility of parole and a mandatory minimum of 20 years for the beating death of 49-year-old Keith Miyashiro.

Miyashiro died of a shattered skull after he was struck three times with a 7-pound roll of plastic wrap during the Aug. 20, 1999 robbery at Waikiki Video Sales & Rental. Cooper fled with $287.

Cooper is also charged and awaits trial for the murder three months earlier of 81-year-old Fred Cramer, a longtime Honolulu Symphony volunteer.

Judge Karen Ahn ordered Cooper to serve the life term after he completes a sentence he is now serving for two unrelated offenses. His parole for those offenses was revoked when he was arrested for the two murders. His original 10-year term expires in 2003.

In granting the state's motion for a mandatory minimum and consecutive sentence, the judge noted it was necessary for the protection of the public, to deter Cooper from committing more crimes, and because "there is such a thing as retribution under the law."

Deputy prosecutor Eric Sacks called Miyashiro's death "senseless," saying he would not have resisted Cooper's demands for money and that Cooper had no reason to strike the "small, fragile" Miyashiro three times.

Cooper continues to maintain that he did not intend to kill Miyashiro and apologizes to the Miyashiro family, deputy public defender Ronette Kawakami said on his behalf after Cooper declined to address the court. Cooper plans to appeal his conviction.

Miyashiro's brother, Lyle, who attended the sentencing declined comment.

Before arriving in Hawaii in 1990, Cooper was released on parole from a California jail for a "strong-arm robbery," Sacks said.

His first trouble with the law here was an arrest for assault in 1991, followed by a sexual assault in 1993.

He had been released on parole in March 1999 when he was picked up for the Miyashiro murder.

Sacks said he will ask the Parole Board to give Cooper a minimum term "a lot higher than 20 years -- long enough to keep him there so he'll die in prison."

Cooper also faces trial in October for Cramer's death. Cramer was found bound and strangled in his Waikiki apartment May 17, 1999.

If convicted, Cooper faces a life term without parole under a statute governing crimes against the elderly, Sacks said.