Lawyer: Hawaiian prisoner who was repeatedly stabbed in Arizona must be transferred

A Hawaii inmate who was stabbed dozens of times by other inmates last month fears for his life and is “desperately” hoping to be transferred from the Arizona prison where he is being held, according to his lawyer.

The July 27 attack on 51-year-old Daniel Kosi was part of a recent wave of violence at Saguaro Correctional Center that prompted the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii to call for a federal investigation into conditions at the facility.

Kosi is currently recovering in the prison's medical unit, his lawyer in Honolulu said, but the inmate is afraid of being targeted again.

“Daniel is terrified that someone is trying to kill him,” said Myles Breiner. “He believes he will die if he stays at Saguaro Correctional Facility. He desperately wants to return to Hawaii.”

Kosi has told his family that he was stabbed more than 50 times, including wounds to both eyes, during the attack in his cell in the administrative unit, a tightly sealed area of ​​the prison normally reserved for inmates accused of violating prison rules.

Kosi is serving an eight-year to life sentence, including life without the possibility of parole, for the shooting death of Eric Vinge and the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Aisha Tolentino on Maui in 1997. He has served 27 years of that so far.

The Hawaii Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement last month that an unidentified Hawaii inmate allegedly attacked a correctional officer at Saguaro., took the keys from him and unlocked the cells of three other prisoners on July 27.

Three of these inmates then allegedly opened the cell of another inmate from Hawaii and attacked him while a fourth stood guard, the agency said. “Other correctional officers immediately responded and stopped the attack,” the statement said.

Kosi's sister Rhonda confirmed that Kosi was the inmate attacked and said in an interview Monday that Saguaro prison officials claim drugs were found on Kosi's person after he was flown by helicopter to an Arizona hospital.

She also said that after the attack, prison authorities convened a disciplinary committee and informed Kosi that he was accused of unspecified violations of “state and federal laws.”

“They're trying to segregate my brother again,” Rhonda Kosi said. “This is crazy. This is really crazy.”

The ACLU is calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate conditions at Saguaro following the stabbing in Kosi and the killing of Anton Myklebust, another Hawaiian inmate, on May 4.

Due to overcrowding in Hawaii's prisons, the state holds 1,001 prisoners in Saguaro.

Tommy Johnson, director of the Hawaii Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said last week that the attacks on Kosi and Myklebust were being investigated by his department, the Eloy Police Department and the Hawaii Department of Law Enforcement.

He declined further comment because those incidents are still under investigation and Johnson said he did not want to compromise the integrity of those investigations.

Breiner has questioned the official story that a guard was overpowered and lost his keys before the attack. He said there must have been a security breach before the attack because all inmates in solitary confinement must be shackled and accompanied by two guards when they leave their cells.

“So it doesn't make much sense for an inmate to be walking around untied in this part of the prison with only one guard present,” he said. “That sounds – again – questionable.”

Breiner said some people in the public may not be sympathetic to a prisoner with Kosi's very violent past, but he said Kosi was not sentenced to be repeatedly stabbed in the face and eyes. What happened to Kosi in Saguaro was “a state of imprisonment that should not exist,” Breiner said.