Ex-detective
gets life term

His wife's shooting death brings
a second consecutive sentence

HILO >> Former Big Island police Detective Albert Pacheco was sentenced to life with possible parole yesterday for the 2002 murder of his wife, Cathalene.

Deputy Prosecutor Michael Udovic told Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura that Pacheco fired 14 bullets into his wife's head, neck and torso.

Udovic has said Pacheco thought his wife was having an affair with another man.

Defense attorney Stanton Oshiro told Nakamura yesterday that Pacheco committed the crime while suffering from a "misapprehension of facts."

Nakamura ordered a 20-year sentence on a charge of using a firearm in a felony, to be served back to back with the life sentence. Because of the firearm, Nakamura also ordered a mandatory minimum of 15 years of the life sentence be served before Pacheco can be considered for parole.

In practice the Hawaii Paroling Authority typically requires a defendant to serve about 30 years of a life sentence before considering parole, Udovic said. Pacheco is 48.

Pacheco made only a brief statement when the judge asked if he wanted to say anything.

"I love my children. I pray every day for them," Pacheco said.

Oshiro told Nakamura that Pacheco is a deeply religious man whose police desk was found with a Bible with numerous marked passages.

"He simply snapped," Oshiro said.

But Udovic said Pacheco "calculated" the death of his wife, luring her back to their home from which she had moved, ramming her car, firing his police pistol until it jammed, clearing it and firing some more. "He actually executed his wife," Udovic said.

Cathalene Pacheco was seated in her car, calling on her cell phone when he fired, Udovic said. Her last words heard over the phone were, "Albert, no, no. Albert, think of the kids."

After the sentencing, Cathalene Pacheco's brother, Lin Uzzel, said he had moved to the Big Island from Austin, Texas, to help care for the children.

The oldest of the children, Shannon Robyn, 26, made no recommendation for a sentence when speaking to the judge, but commented, "Domestic violence is a real and present danger throughout our society."