Pleading guilty to a lesser charge should bring shorter jail time

Four of five men originally charged with murdering professional surfer and former Kauai resident Emery Kauanui, Jr., pleaded guilty to lesser charges today.

The men had faced up to life in prison if convicted of murder in the beating death of the 24-year-old Hawaiian surfer outside his mother’s home in the affluent La Jolla neighborhood after a fight at a bar last year.

Eric House, 21, Orlando Osuna, 23, and Matthew Yanke, 21, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and misdemeanor battery. Henri “Hank” Hendricks, 22, pleaded guilty to a felony of being an accessory to the death.

Remaining defendant Seth Cravens, 22, alleged to be the ringleader, re-entered a not-guilty plea after his attorney rejected a plea offer from prosecutors.

Prosecutors initially alleged the men were part of a gang, but a judge found in May that they could not be prosecuted under gang statutes.

Kauanui’s death rattled staid La Jolla, where parking squabbles are common but violence is rare.

Nicknamed the “Flying Hawaiian,” Kauanui was a fixture at Windansea Beach, a few blocks from his house, where his favorite surf break is now called “Emery’s Left.”

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(Source: Allison Hoffman, Honolulu Star-Bulletin)