Mafi v. State

── Mafi v. State ── Court: Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals Date: April 16, 2026 Category: General NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN WEST'S HAWAIʻI REPORTS AND PACIFIC REPORTER Electronically Filed Intermediate Court of Appeals CAAP-XX-XXXXXXX 16-APR-2026 08:04 AM Dkt. 40 SO NO. CAAP-XX-XXXXXXX IN THE INTERMEDIATE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF HAWAIʻI VILISONI MAFI, Petitioner-Appellant, v. STATE OF HAWAIʻI, Respondent-Appellee. APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE FIRST CIRCUIT (CASE NO. 1CPN-XX-XXXXXXX (CR. NOS. 1CPC-XX-XXXXXXX, 1CPC-XX-XXXXXXX, 1CPC-XX-XXXXXXX, 1CPC-XX-XXXXXXX)) SUMMARY DISPOSITION ORDER (By: Wadsworth, Presiding Judge, McCullen and Guidry, JJ.) Self-represented Petitioner-Appellant Vilisoni S. Mafi, also known as Sione Langi and Soni Talo Sekope, appeals from the Circuit Court of the First Circuit's August 19, 2024 order denying his Hawaiʻi Rules of Penal Procedure (HRPP) Rule 40 "Petition to Vacate, Set Aside, or Correct Judgment or to Release Petitioner from Custody." 1 1 The Honorable Paul B.K. Wong presided. NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN WEST'S HAWAIʻI REPORTS AND PACIFIC REPORTER To the extent we can discern, Mafi contends on appeal that he does not qualify as a habitual property crime perpetrator, because "both [the prior] convictions and [the instant] offences [sic] had to have occurred after the 2016 [amendment to the habitual property crime statute,] which double[d] the length of time from 5 years to 10." 2 Upon careful review of the record and the briefs submitted by the parties, and having given due consideration to the issues raised and the arguments advanced, we resolve this appeal as discussed below and affirm. Mafi has eleven prior convictions related to theft. On October 23, 2007, in 1P1070018337, Mafi was convicted of Theft in the Fourth Degree in violation of Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes (HRS) § 708-833 (1993), a petty misdemeanor. On February 17, 2011, in 1PC101001482, Mafi was convicted of six counts of Theft in the Second Degree in violation of HRS § 708- 831 (Supp. 2006), a class C felony; three counts of Theft in the Third Degree in violation of HRS § 708-832 (Supp. 2006), a misdemeanor; and one count of Attempted Theft in the Third Degree in violation of HRS §§ 705-500 (1993) and 708-832. 2 Although Mafi's two opening briefs do not comport with Hawaiʻi Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 28, we liberally construe his self-represented filings to promote meaningful access to justice. See, e.g., Erum v. Llego, 147 Hawaiʻi 368, 380, 465 P.3d 815, 827 (2020). 2 NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN WEST'S HAWAIʻI REPORTS AND PACIFIC REPORTER In 2016, the Hawaiʻi State Legislature amended HRS § 708-803 (2014 & Supp. 2016), effective July 1, 2016, to "double[] the length of time from five years to ten years that a conviction can qualify a person for habitual theft status." 3 HRS § 708-803 cmt. In 2017, a grand jury indicted Mafi in four different cases with committing Habitual Property Crime in violation of 3 The 2004 version of HRS § 708-803, which Mafi contends ought to have applied to his sentence, provided as follows: [§708-803] Habitual property crime. (1) A person commits the offense of habitual property crime if the person is a habitual property crime perpetrator and commits a misdemeanor offense within this chapter. (2) For the purposes of th