No jail yet for
convicted robber

The state high court
upholds his bail while
the case is appealed

Shaun Rodrigues: The former guardsman insists he is innocent of a home invasion

The Hawaii Supreme Court has denied a request by prosecutors to set aside a circuit judge's order allowing a former Hawaii National Guardsman to remain free pending an appeal of his conviction in a home invasion robbery.

In a two-paragraph decision issued yesterday, the justices did not detail why they denied the petition, but noted that any request for relief from Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall's Sept. 10 order should be filed in the pending appeal of his conviction.

On Sept. 10, Crandall sentenced Shaun Rodrigues, 24, of Kailua, to 20 years' imprisonment in a July 2000 robbery in which a Manoa resident and her daughter were tied up at gunpoint and robbed.

But Crandall granted Rodrigues' request to remain free on bail against the state's objection after finding he was not a flight risk or a danger to the community. Rodrigues filed notice appealing his conviction on Oct. 7. He has maintained his innocence, saying he was the victim of mistaken identity.

Defense attorney William Harrison said yesterday that he had expected the ruling because the courts rarely grant requests seeking extraordinary relief.

"There's really no showing that my client is a flight risk or danger, which is the more appropriate issue the state would have to address to obtain this type of relief," he said.

Deputy Prosecutor Russell Uehara said he and attorneys in the appellate division who drafted the document are perplexed at the justices' ruling. "They don't give a single reason why the writ was denied, and it was denied without prejudice, so obviously the writ has merit," he said.

Prosecutors had argued that the defense's claim of mistaken identity lacked merit because Crandall's own written findings and conclusions clearly showed that the testimony of the complaining witnesses were "utterly credible" while the defense witnesses were not credible, Uehara said.

"Once a jury or judge makes those absolutely compelling findings, it's not going to be overturned on appeal -- that's case law," he said.

At this point, it appears the state will have to wait until the appeal -- which could take a couple of years -- is decided, Uehara said.

The case has already been shadowed by numerous delays, including a more than two-year gap from the time Crandall pronounced Rodrigues guilty in March 2002 until he was actually sentenced this past September. Rodrigues has remained out on bail while awaiting trial and after his conviction.

The delays were attributed to both the prosecution and the defense, which filed motions earlier this year asking the court to reopen the trial based on new evidence they said exonerated Rodrigues.

In August it appeared Rodrigues' sentencing would again be delayed, possibly another 18 months, after Harrison notified the court that his National Guard unit had been activated for eventual deployment to Iraq. The court finally sentenced Rodrigues in September after the Hawaii National Guard, at the prosecutor's request, asked that he be deactivated so that the pending criminal matter could be resolved.