Opinion ID: 4529505
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: On June 9, 2014, Allan H. Abihai (“Abihai”), who was serving a life term of imprisonment for multiple felonies committed in 1984, left the Laumaka Work Furlough Center (“Laumaka”) in Honolulu and did not return. On June 29, 2014, Abihai was arrested at a former cellmate’s apartment in  FOR PUBLICATION IN WEST’S HAWAIʻI REPORTS AND PACIFIC REPORTER  Honolulu. He was later charged with escape in the second degree. In his jury trial on the escape charge, Abihai raised a choice of evils defense, contending he left Laumaka because he was threatened he would be hurt if he testified in an upcoming federal criminal trial involving a prison gang. The jury was instructed on the choice of evils defense, then convicted Abihai of escape in the second degree. The Circuit Court of the First Circuit (“circuit court”) imposed a five-year prison term for the escape conviction, to run concurrent to his life sentence for the 1984 felonies, and denied him credit for time served. Abihai raised two points of error on appeal to the ICA: (1) that trial counsel was ineffective for substantially impairing his choice of evils defense by failing to elicit certain testimony from his witnesses; and (2) that the circuit court erred when it denied him credit for time served on the sentence imposed for the escape conviction. The ICA affirmed the circuit court’s judgment of conviction and sentence. Abihai raises the same issues on certiorari. For the reasons below, we resolve Abihai’s points of error as follows: (1) Because the record on appeal is insufficient to determine whether there has been ineffective assistance of counsel, we affirm Abihai’s conviction without prejudice to a subsequent Hawaiʻi Rules of Penal Procedure (“HRPP”) Rule 40 petition on the 2  FOR PUBLICATION IN WEST’S HAWAIʻI REPORTS AND PACIFIC REPORTER  ineffective assistance of counsel claim; and (2) the ICA erred in affirming the circuit court’s decision to deny Abihai credit for time served on his escape conviction. The circuit court’s June 14, 2017 judgment of conviction and sentence is therefore affirmed, but the ICA’s September 6, 2018 judgment on appeal is vacated, and this matter is remanded to the circuit court for calculation of Abihai’s presentence detention credit consistent with this opinion.