39-year-old Ammon Stanley of  Puna was sentenced to 25 years in prison for manslaughter, assault, and arson related to an April 2022 incident in Orchidland Estates.

According to police, Puna patrol officers located a burned Hyundai Elantra on Government Beach Road where the human remains of Haku Waipa were discovered.

Further police investigation concluded that Stanley shot Waipa with a bang stick, a pipe firearm capable of firing a shotgun shell, before fleeing from the Orchidland Estates property. Starla Vegas was also struck by projectiles from the bang stick during the incident. Two bird shot pellets were later recovered from Vegas’ scalp.

On November 12, Stanley appeared in Hilo Circuit Court for his sentencing hearing where prosecutors argued for the maximum penalty, a thirty-year prison term with sentences running consecutively.

Despite prosecutors’ arguments, the Court sentenced Stanley to a twenty-five-year prison term, including a twenty-year prison term for manslaughter and five-year prison terms for both the felony assault and arson offenses. The Court ordered that the five-year prison term for the arson offense to be served consecutively to the periods of incarceration for the manslaughter and assault offenses.

 

HPD Photo