Hilo Woman Sentenced to Jail for Shoplifting, Drugs

Gayleen Oda, 35, of Hilo was sentenced Thursday to a year in jail after she pleaded guilty to second-degree theft and possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.

Circuit Court Judge Glenn Hara also placed Oda on five years of probation. Hara ordered that Oda’s sentence include release to a residential drug treatment program and that she pay a mandatory shoplifting fine of $1,386.

At the time of her guilty plea, Oda was under court supervision for a deferred plea for an earlier case of meth possession. As a result, Hara rescinded her earlier deferral and gave her another year in jail with release to a drug program.

The theft charge stems from a Dec. 24, 2011 incident in which Oda stuffed $346 worth of merchandise into a baby stroller at a Hilo retail store and walked out. She caught by store personnel and held for police. When police arrested her, they found meth and drug paraphernalia in her possession.

Shoplifters convicted of taking merchandise valued at more than $300 face a mandatory fine of four times the value of the stolen property for a first offense. The fine is doubled for subsequent offenses.