What began as an attempted-murder case earlier this year in Chinatown was resolved yesterday as a first-degree assault conviction.

Hine Laloulu, 22, was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to the assault charge.

Laloulu attacked Antonius Toloai in April on River Street near a makeshift memorial for another man who had been shot to death five days earlier in what authorities said was a turf war between rival criminal groups.

Laloulu's victim, Antonius Toloai, testified in court in April that he was accosted by a group of seven people as he passed by the memorial for the murder victim, Joseph Peneueta.

Toloai identified Laloulu, who is known as "Tiny," as one of his attackers and said the defendant stabbed him in the stomach.

Toloai said he had arrived in Honolulu three months earlier.

Iosefa Pasene and Zorro Rye, who are originally from San Francisco, are charged with murdering Peneueta.