Following a lengthy and sometimes emotional Hawai'i Paroling Authority hearing yesterday, the three-member panel seemed to have its doubts about whether John Szemkow knowingly left the scene of an accident in which four farm workers were killed on Kunia Road on April 6, 2006.

"We need to make sure that we have the right guy in prison," parole board chairman Albert Tufono told Szemkow at the conclusion of the hearing. "And we need to be sure that we set a minimum sentence that reflects your participation in this accident."

Tufono said the board would defer its decision while members considered all the information presented at the hearing. He told Szemkow that the board would reach a determination within two weeks.

On Aug. 6, Szemkow was sentenced to 10 years in prison for failure to render aid in the horrific Kunia Road accident in which a pickup truck carrying a dozen farm workers swerved to avoid an oncoming car and crashed head-on with a cement truck, killing the four women and injuring eight others.

However, on Jan. 9 the parole board set the minimum term at five months and six days for Szemkow, 48, meaning that he was eligible for parole as early as yesterday's hearing.

Szemkow, who has multiple medical problems that require a regimen of medications including the use of a morphine pump, was brought into the hearing room in a wheelchair. Since his conviction, he has been confined to the infirmary at the Halawa Correctional Facility, said prison doctor Steven DeWitt. DeWitt also told the board that there was almost no possibility that Szemkow could be assigned to the general prison population.

John Schum, one of Szemkow's lawyers, reiterated much of what he told the board at the January hearing — that based on police reports and a closer examination of eyewitness accounts of what happened, Szemkow could not have caused the accident and that he was so far in front of the crash when it happened that he would not have known it had occurred.

Another of Szemkow's lawyers, William Harrison, told the board, "We don't believe he committed this offense. In fact, as Mr. Schum has pointed out, the driver of the other truck who was involved in the accident indicated that there was a third car that actually caused the accident, described it, and it did not meet the description of Mr. Szemkow's vehicle that day."

Two members of the victim's families told the board they didn't think Szemkow should be granted parole. Anilyn Cruz, niece of Aquilina Polendey, 57, one of the four women killed, said Szemkow should serve his full sentence to give the family peace of mind and a sense of justice.

Marlene Sagucio, wife of Edgar Sagucio, who was hospitalized in the crash, wept openly as she told the board that her husband's head, neck and back injuries are so severe that she has been left as a full-time caregiver who must be with her husband constantly.

Deputy prosecutor Franklin Pacarro Jr. argued that Szemkow should not get early release. He said every witness stated that Szemkow caused the accident. Pacarro said because of Szemkow's numerous medications, especially morphine, Szemkow "was a train wreck waiting to happen," and "he should never have been on the road."

Pacarro repeatedly told the board that every time Szemkow got behind the wheel, he was in violation of the law.

However, Tufono reminded Pacarro that Szemkow was not charged with driving under the influence, and that the board was only there to consider his felony conviction of knowingly leaving the scene of an accident.

Parole board member Dane Oda said it seems possible that Szemkow did not know the crash had occurred, as Szemkow has maintained.

No matter what the board decides, Szemkow will probably be required to serve his one-year sentenced for third-degree negligent homicide before he can be released, paroling officials said yesterday.