Two native Hawaiian men were facing years behind bars on Thursday after being found guilty of a racial hate crime by beating a white newcomer to their remote Maui village with a shovel.
A jury convicted Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi and Levi Aki Jr in November, finding they were motivated by Christopher Kunzelman’s race when they punched, kicked and beat him with a shovel in 2014.
Kunzelman, who bought the property with his wife so she could live near the ocean after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, was left with a concussion, two broken ribs and head and abdominal trauma from the sickening attack.
Local lawyers say it’s the first time the US has prosecuted native Hawaiians for hate crimes.Â
The case highlights simmering racial tensions between natives, who feel their culture and property are under threat, and wealthier white Americans who buy fixer uppers on the tropical islands.
Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi (left) and Levi Aki Jr. (right) will be sentenced for a hate crime after assaulting white man, Christopher Kunzelman, in 2014
Kunzelman released surveillance footage of the 2014 attack which showed the men yelling at him and saying that the incident ‘wasn’t personal’ but he had the ‘wrong color skin’
Tensions began over a dilapidated, oceanfront home in Kahakuloa, a small village off a narrow road of hairpin turns and sweeping ocean views at the end of a valley on Maui, an island known for luxurious resorts.
Kunzelman and his wife purchased the property sight-unseen after a foreclosure for $175,000 because she wanted to leave Scottsdale, Arizona, to convalesce in the idyllic tropical destination.
‘We loved Maui; we loved the people,’ said Lori Kunzelman, describing how her husband planned to fix up the house himself.
He was starting to do that when the attack happened, she said.
‘It was obviously a hate crime from the very beginning,’ she said. ‘The whole time, they’re saying things like, ‘You have the wrong skin color. No ‘haole’ is ever going to live…
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