The only one of three defendants to plead guilty to a lesser charge in the 2004 Pali Golf Course shootings was sentenced yesterday to 271/2 years in federal prison.

The 330-month prison term is part of a plea deal in which Kevin A. Gonsalves agreed to plead guilty to racketeering involving murder instead of murder. Gonsalves, 38, also pleaded guilty in September to participating in the operation of an illegal gambling business.

U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway accepted Gonsalves' plea agreement yesterday and also ordered him to serve five years' parole after he completes his prison term. She also ordered him to pay at least a share of $19,105 in restitution.

Mollway said Gonsalves appears to have had more of a soldier's role in the January 2004 shooting that killed two men and injured a third. But she said she sees no “;encouraging signs”; that Gonsalves can eventually become a productive member of society.

Mollway had rejected a previous plea agreement involving Gonsalves and former co-defendants Ethan Motta and Rodney Joseph Jr. because she said she could find no justification for sentencing them to less than the mandatory minimum of life in prison for murder. The statutory prison sentence for the racketeering charge is 20 years to life.

Gonsalves said he was asked to arrange a meeting at Pali Golf Course between two groups that were providing security for the same illegal gambling operation. He said he rode in a van with members of one group who were attending a funeral nearby at Hawaiian Memorial Park in Kaneohe.

Mollway said the meeting was a means of luring the members of the group to the golf course, where they were gunned down as soon as they arrived.

Romelius Corpuz Jr. and Lepo Taliese were killed in the shooting, and Tinoimalu Sao was seriously injured.

Joseph is charged with murder for allegedly shooting Corpuz. Motta is charged with murder for allegedly shooting Taliese and with attempted murder for allegedly shooting Sao.

Gonsalves was also charged with murder for shooting Taliese. Mollway dropped that charged after she sentenced him for racketeering.