32 year-old Sonny E. Puerto of Puna aka “JUNYA” was recently sentenced to ten years in prison in relation to charges of Electronic Enticement of a Child in the First Degree as a part of Operation Keiki Shield in May 2021.

During the July 2024 trial, Prosecutors presented evidence that Puerto exchanged text messages with an undercover police officer, whom Puerto believed to be a 13 year-old girl, where he requested sexual intercourse, fellatio, and cunnilingus. After receiving the jury’s guilty verdict in July, Prosecutors requested that Puerto, who was previously released on $30,000.00 bail, be taken into custody and held without bail. The Court denied the request; however, increased bail to $500,000.00 and remanded Puerto into custody where he remained until his sentencing hearing.

Electronic Enticement of a Child in the First Degree is a Class B felony offense which carries a penalty of a ten-year prison term without the possibility of probation and mandates registration as a sex offender.

Operation Keiki Shield, which included members of  the Hawai‘i County Police Department (“HPD”), Hawai‘i County Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Department of the Attorney General, Internet Crimes Against Children’s (“ICAC”) Task Force, Homeland Security Investigations, the United States Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Honolulu Police Department, Maui Police Department, and Kaua‘i Police Department, is a state-federal-local collaborative initiative focused on identifying and arresting offenders who commit internet-facilitated sex crimes against minors and rescuing victims of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

The case was prosecuted by Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys Ha‘aheo Kaho‘ohalahala and Patrick Muñoz.

HPD Photo