Prosecutors said the physical and mental abuse committed by Rita Makekau on five children was so heinous that she should spend the next 41 years behind bars. Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall called Makekau's behavior "unacceptable" and sentenced her yesterday to five years in prison.

Makekau, an unemployed truck driver and self-described "Royal Minister of Foreign Affairs" for the sovereignty group Hawaiian Kingdom Government, pleaded no contest to eight counts of assaulting her sister's children over a two-year period and one count of abuse of a family member.

She plans to appeal her conviction on the grounds that as a Native Hawaiian, she is outside the jurisdiction of state courts.

Crandall allowed Makekau to remain free until at least Dec. 22, the deadline for filing an appeal.

Deputy Prosecutor Lori Wada called the five-year prison sentence "a miscarriage of justice" and said Crandall's decision not to jail Makekau immediately was "shocking."

Crandall will sentence two other defendants in the case, Gabriel and Barbara Kalama, on Monday.

The children — three nephews and two nieces of Makekau — were between 10 and 14 years old when the abuse began in 2004. They were removed from the Kalamas' Wai'anae home, where Makekau also lived, in 2006.

VICTIMS DESCRIBE ABUSE

Three of the children were present in court, and a social worker read statements from them in which they recounted horrific details of their treatment at the hands of their relatives.

Makekau used a hammer to break and chip their teeth when they misbehaved. She struck them on their heads with knives and metal spoons, causing bleeding and permanent scarring.

The children said they sometimes went without food for a week, and one had been forced to sleep under the house with dogs and insects and without warm clothes or bedding as punishment for misbehavior.

Wada said after the court hearing that she learned of new allegations of abuse from the statements read in court.

For instance, Wada said, she was unaware of charges that one of the adults shoved a broom handle down the throat of one child, or that threats were made to drown the children in a bathtub of water.

Another child said that when the family was living on Moloka'i, they were made to run across the yard while a pellet gun was fired at them.

They were also forced to kick and hit each other so that if injuries were discovered at school or elsewhere, the adults could claim innocence.

The children kept silent about what was being done to them until the oldest boy told a friend at school. That friend told his mother, who then told police, Wada said.

LEGAL GUARDIANS

The Kalamas originally served as foster parents to the five siblings after state authorities removed them from the care of their natural mother.

"Gabriel and Barbara Kalama were appointed as legal guardians of the five children on Sept. 7, 2000, by the Family Court," state Child Welfare Services official Amy Tsark said earlier this year in a statement about the case.

"That means the children were not under the care and supervision of Child Welfare Services when the abuse occurred. CWS shares the public's outrage about the maltreatment of these innocent children."

Toni Schwartz, public information officer for DHS, said the children were in state foster care before 2000, but once the Family Court made the Kalamas their guardians, the foster care system was no longer involved.

Foster care monitors would not make regular or even occasional checks on the children's welfare because the department no longer was involved after 2000, according to Schwartz.

Makekau appeared unrepentant when she appeared before Crandall yesterday, saying that what has happened to her is the will of God.

She quoted the Bible as saying, "Do not spare the rod" when disciplining children.

Makekau said she loves the children.

According to Wada, none of the children ever saw a doctor or dentist until they were removed from the Kalama household.

The five siblings were placed with another foster family who are distant relatives, according to Wada. In recent months, a problem arose and the two girls were removed and placed with other relatives, but all five should soon be reunited, she said.

ANGER AT SENTENCE

After the court hearing, Wada met privately with the children, their social worker and Collette Dhakhwa, a court-appointed "guardian ad litem" who represents their legal interests.

Wada said the children were "very angry and very upset" by the five-year sentence.

During the hearing, Dhakhwa urged Crandall to give Makekau the longest possible sentence.

Gabriel Kalama, 31, pleaded no contest in August to two counts of second-degree assault and five counts of abuse of a family member.

Wada said Makekau was "the worst offender," but alleged that Gabriel Kalama beat one child with a belt "for jumping on a bed" and forced another to eat a sibling's feces.

Barbara Kalama, 28, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree child endangerment and six counts of abuse of a family member.

Barbara Kalama "used her fingernails to pinch" the children and also "whacked them on their fingertips with a wooden spoon," Wada said.

Both are seeking probation.

Court records show the Kalamas have four children of their own and are raising a fifth child Barbara Kalama had by a previous relationship. Those children were taken into foster care for a day when the Kalamas were first arrested, but were returned because the couple had no history of abuse or neglect of their own children, state officials said.

The Kalamas' biological children remained with them, and the couple agreed to accept state services and state monitoring of the family until the case was closed on June 9, 2008, according to the Department of Human Services.