The Maui News
WAILUKU — Three years after he was honored as a hero for intervening in a fatal stabbing at Foodland Kehalani, a man was resentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for committing crimes while on probation.
James Reeves, 37, had pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of fourth-degree theft and unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle in two 2018 cases.
He was sentenced Friday to a 30-day jail term and five-year prison term, respectively, for those charges.
The convictions resulted in his probation being revoked in 2014 and 2016 cases, leading to 10-year prison terms for keeping a pistol in an improper place and two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
A plea agreement recommended the prison terms, which Reeves will serve at the same time.
Deputy Public Defender Ben Lowenthal said a report prepared for Reeves’ sentencing “shows a person who does have some mental health issues and has had a very troubled past.”
“There is an altruistic side to him,” Lowenthal said.
He said Reeves “does understand the importance of being a good person and putting himself before others.”
Reeves was stabbed while trying to stop murderer Stephen B. Schmidt in the Foodland store in Wailuku the night of April 19, 2016. Reeves was in the checkout line when he heard a woman screaming in an aisle and followed Schmidt as he ran out of the store with a knife, according to an account Reeves gave from his hospital bed a few days later. He said he fought with Schmidt outside the store to try to keep him from leaving before police arrived.
When Schmidt went back into the store, Reeves said he was trying to keep Schmidt from hurting Kehau Farias Schmidt even more when he slipped on her blood and was stabbed in the chest.
Reeves suffered a collapsed lung and numerous cuts in the attack. Another bystander also was stabbed while trying to help Farias Schmidt, who died after her throat was slit.
Last year, Schmidt was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Several months after the stabbing, Reeves was arrested after he was found with an unregistered semi-automatic pistol and a smoking pipe containing methamphetamine in the parking lot of Napili Market, according to police.
When he was placed on probation in that case in August 2017, Reeves said he had turned to drugs as a way to cope after the stabbing.
In his latest cases, Schmidt was charged with burglarizing a residence on Baker Street in Lahaina on April 21, 2018, and operating a vehicle that was stolen from Avis Rent A Car on June 10, 2018, according to court records.
Second Circuit Judge Richard Bissen followed the plea agreement in sentencing Reeves.
He was ordered to pay $3,750 in restitution to Avis Budget Group.
In his probation revocation cases, Reeves also was resentenced to five-year prison terms for third-degree promoting of a dangerous drug and possessing drug paraphernalia and to one-year jail terms for failing to obtain a permit to acquire a firearm and violating an order for protection.
He is serving all of the prison terms at the same time.
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