Kahala bank robber
sentenced to prisonRoger Dailey gets the lightest
term of four convicted in the case
A bank robber who cooperated with authorities following one of the most violent holdups on Oahu four years ago was sentenced to six years and three months in federal prison yesterday.
Roger Dailey, 37, received the lightest sentence of the four men convicted in the 1999 armed robbery and shootout at the American Savings Bank in Kahala.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Johnson told visiting U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken that Dailey's testimony was vital in the state and federal trials of his co-defendants.
Albert Batalona, whom police identified as the group's leader, is serving the harshest sentence handed down in the case, life without parole. He was convicted in state court of attempted murder of a police officer. He and two other inmates escaped from Halawa Correctional Facility in April but were caught a week later.
Sean Matsunaga is serving a 22-year, 11-month sentence, and Jacob Hayme is serving a 17-year, eight-month sentence, both in federal prisons. Matsunaga, Hayme and Dailey also are jointly liable for $11,248.51 in restitution.
All four men stormed into the Kahala bank on July 7, 1999, wearing masks and brandishing guns. Authorities said the robbers ordered everybody in the bank to the floor, dragged one customer by the hair and hit an employee with the butt of a rifle to gain access to a currency dispenser.
Batalona was the only one of the four convicted of firing his weapon at a police officer.
Dailey apologized yesterday to all of the victims, the citizens of Kahala and the state for his actions and those of his co-defendants. He also said he hopes to make up for what he has done.
Police arrested Dailey after tracing a supermarket discount card on a set of keys found in one of the robbers' stolen getaway vehicles to him. His attorney, U.S. Public Defender Peter Wolff, said Dailey's subsequent cooperation led to the arrest of Hayme and Matsunaga and recovery of evidence.
Dailey has been in custody since July 1999. But he will get credit only for the time he was being held in the federal detention center in Honolulu starting in August 2001. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons does not recognize the time he spent in protective custody in a Honolulu Police Department cellblock while the detention center was still under construction.
Aiken agreed to reduce Dailey's sentence to take into account the time he spent in protective custody but did not credit him with the full 25 months he spent at HPD headquarters.
"The court appreciates you stepped forward and cooperated," Aiken said.
But she said she found the crime shocking.
"Victims had to be extraordinarily affected," Aiken said. "This crime had a tremendous impact on the community."
