DeJarnette Sentenced to 20 Years for Killing His Wife

A Kona judge on Thursday sentenced a retired Los Angeles police detective to 20 years in prison for a 2006 crime in which he admitted beating his wife to death with a car jack stand.

Daniel DeJarnette, 59, was initially arrested on Nov. 14, 2006, two days after police were called to his home for what DeJarnette described as a home accident.

Police arriving at the couple’s Hawaiian Ocean View Estates home found 56-year-old Yu DeJarnette lying on a nearby lava embankment with extensive head injuries. DeJarnette reportedly told police his wife had fallen over an embankment while hanging laundry.

Citing a lack of evidence, police released DeJarnette from custody four days later.

After the case was reopened in January 2012, DNA evidence showed blood from DeJarnette’s wife on items recovered from the home.

A grand jury indicted DeJarnette for second-degree murder in May 2012.

This past March, shortly before the case was to go to trial, DeJarnette pleaded guilty to manslaughter while under extreme emotional distress. As part of a plea deal, he admitted striking his wife twice with the jack stand after his wife told him she was leaving him.