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Hawaii Guard One of Four Convicted in Smuggling Scheme at Honolulu Prison

Loaded on June 1, 2023 by Chuck Sharman published in Prison Legal News June, 2023, page 23
Filed under: Guard Misconduct, Cell Searches, Drugs - Determination of. Location: Hawaii.

by Chuck Sharman

A guard and a prisoner at Oahu Community Correctional Center in Honolulu were among four people convicted on federal conspiracy charges in a drug-and-gun-smuggling scheme at the lockup. All but the guard were sentenced in February and May 2023.

On February 10, 2023, prisoner Robert S. Gibson, 38, had 100 months added to his sentence for masterminding a plan to smuggle the contraband into the lockup. He was being held there for kidnapping, robbery and impersonating a law enforcement during a home invasion committed after walking off a work furlough in 2015.

Two days earlier, on February 8, 2023, his girlfriend, Ceceliacharity Hilo, a/k/a Cece Adams, was convicted of buying the meth for him and passing it to co-conspirators. For that she was sentenced to 27 months of time she had served plus two years of supervised release and a $100 special assessment.

Gibson’s stepsister, Keicha K.W. Brunn-Kekuewa, 30, pleaded guilty to setting up calls between the two in late 2019 and early 2020, as well as accepting the meth Hilo obtained. For that she got a 20-month prison term on May 10, 2023, plus two years of supervised release. She also lost her job as a high school softball coach at Sacred Hearts Academy, where as a student she played catcher on the team that won the state Division II championship in 2007.

The guard to whom passed the contraband – in a transaction captured on surveillance video at a local convenience store – was a 20-year veteran of the state Department of Corrections. Richard Ascencio pleaded guilty on September 21, 2022, and he is scheduled for sentencing on July 27, 2023. See: USA v. Hilo, USDC (D. Haw.), Case No. 1:21-cr-00010.  

Additional source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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