A Hawaii man has been sentenced to prison for murdering his wife’s lover with a machete, according to local reports.
Seniola Kafoa, 47, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the death of Sione Paletua, a 53-year-old father of seven, according to local CBS affiliate KGMB. A jury found Kafoa guilty of manslaughter in May.
“Your Honor, sending him to prison is the only appropriate sentence in this case. “It will send a message not only to the defendant, but also to the people of Maui, that you do not get a pass to kill someone because your wife is cheating,” said Prosecutor Frank Loyd.
The incident took place on Maui on July 20, 2024. Cops reported that when they arrived at the scene, they were met by a man who led them to Paletua, who was unconscious on the ground with a severe arm injury.
Officers applied a tourniquet to his arm and rushed him to the hospital. When Paletua arrived, doctors pronounced him dead. A witness told police that he saw Kafoa standing over his body before driving away in a Honda. Cops later discovered the abandoned Honda and arrested Kafoa on second-degree murder charges.
Prosecutors tried Paletua for murder, but jurors convicted him of lesser manslaughter instead, much to the victim’s family’s dismay.
“One day he will have to meet his maker, the man above, and answer to him as to why he did what he did,” Paletua’s oldest daughter stated.
She and her siblings lost their mother to cancer in 2011. They are now without both of their parents.
“One of the things we will miss most about our father is his sense of security. We had already lost our mother, and the fact that we still had our father in this crazy world was comforting,” she said.
Kafoa apologized to Paleuta’s family via a Tongan interpreter.
Circuit Judge Peter Cahill imposed the maximum prison sentence under the law.
“It is a horrific death under circumstances that sadly occurred, but the bottom line is, it did happen, and we can’t ignore it,” he told CNN.
