In a decision that "shocked" the prosecutor, a Circuit Court jury yesterday found accused murderer Ulutunu Faumuina Jr. guilty of misdemeanor assault in the 2004 death of Mikiala Kahalewai.

Faumuina, 27, had been accused of stomping Kahalewai to death after the victim urinated inside the defendant's truck outside a Kona Street karaoke bar.

But the jury, after deliberating less than a day, found the defendant guilty of third-degree assault. He faces a maximum of one year in prison when he returns to Circuit Judge Karen Ahn's court June 29 for sentencing. Faumuina remains out on bail until the sentencing.

Defense attorney Howard Luke said he was "very pleased" by the verdict but would have preferred an outright acquittal.

He said the jury had to face "two very real issues" in weighing the evidence in the case.

One was the "extreme emotional disturbance" that Faumuina was under when he saw Kahalewai urinating into the cab of Faumuina's pickup truck. Faumuina's family had purchased the vehicle in memory of Faumuina's father, who was killed with six other family members in a residential fire in Palolo Valley, Luke said.

And there were other individuals involved in the altercation with Kahalewai, Luke said. One shoeprint left on Kahalewai's head after the stomping did not match the shoes worn by Faumuina that night, Luke said.

But Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kory Young said that other prints left on Kahalewai's face after the attack did match Fauimuina's shoes and that the victim's blood was caked into the soles of the defendant's shoes.

"We're shocked," Young said outside court.

Faumuina admitted on the witness stand "that he used his feet to attack Mr. Kahalewai," Young said.

Kahalewai's family was "disappointed" by the verdict, the prosecutor said.

Luke called the 280-pound Faumuina, a former high school and college football player, a peaceful young man who "really feels terrible about what happened that night."

'PROVOCATION'

Faumuina, who was working as a gravedigger at the time of the assault, acted "under extreme provocation" from Kahalewai, Luke said.

He stressed in his closing argument to the jury yesterday that Kahalewai, without provocation, accosted Faumuina immediately after the defendant parked his truck on Kona Street to join friends in Pachinko Night Club.

The confrontation was initially "squashed" and Faumuina was headed into the bar when he turned and saw Kahalewai urinating into the truck, Luke said.

Faumuina said nothing as he left the court this afternoon with his mother, Elaine.

Another man originally charged with Faumuina in the case, Joseph Penitani, pleaded guilty to a felony assault charge in the middle of the trial.

The start of the trial was delayed after Penitani fled to New Zealand, Australia and Tonga after he and Faumuina were first indicted.

Penitani was apprehended in Tonga in 2006.

LESSER CHARGES

The verdict is the second in as many weeks in which defendants accused of murder have been found guilty of lesser charges in Honolulu jury trials.

Last week, a Circuit Court jury found Glenn Keohokapu Jr. guilty of manslaughter in the 2008 stabbing death of Steven Wilcox. That crime also occurred in the early morning hours outside a karaoke bar.

Prosecutors did win a guilty verdict this week in the murder trial of another man, Darnell Griffin. Griffin was convicted of the 1999 murder of Evelyn Luka in a "cold case" murder trial that was based largely on a DNA match made eight years after Luka was found beside H-2 Freeway.