Man who threatened witness gets four years’ probation

Jason Gallegos reportedly held gas can and lighter as he made threats

WAILUKU — A man whose girlfriend was arrested in the fatal beating of a homeless man in Lahaina was placed on four years’ probation Wednesday for threatening a witness to the assault.

Jason Gallegos, 45, was reported to be holding a gas can and lighter when he threatened the victim, who was with others who had seen the assault outside McDonald’s restaurant the night of Feb. 2.

Gallegos’ girlfriend, Heather Glennon, had been arrested when “he threatened a witness to the incident who was a friend of the victim,” said Deputy Prosecutor Carson Tani.

After being hit on the head with a vodka bottle and collapsing, 51-year-old Christopher Flanagan was transported by ambulance to Maui Memorial Medical Center, where he later died, police said.

Gallegos had pleaded no contest to first-degree terroristic threatening, with other charges of first-degree terroristic threatening, intimidating a witness and third-degree assault dismissed in exchange for his plea.

The prosecution and defense recommended probation for Gallegos, who had spent about five months in jail.

“I let my emotions get the best of me when it comes to something I shouldn’t have got involved in,” Gallegos said in court Wednesday. “You ain’t going to see me back here again, I promise you.”

He said he has a job working at a recycling center.

“I tried my best with that girl,” he said, apparently referring to Glennon. “It backfired. I ended up stepping somewhere I shouldn’t have stepped. It had nothing to do with me.”

At the time, the group of homeless people “had just witnessed a very violent incident,” said defense attorney John

Parker.

“It’s hard to say what exactly happened because it was told by several different people in a highly excited state,” he said.

“This incident was not a crime against the community,” Parker said. “It was a crime between a group of homeless men who all knew each other.”

When 2nd Circuit Judge Rhonda Loo asked whether homeless people were community members, Parker said yes.

“It is a crime that related to a community of homeless individuals in the Lahaina area,” he said. “I’m not degrading the homeless status. It’s a different kind of thing than walking into a fine restaurant and picking somebody out and threatening them. This was talk between street people.”

Later, Gallegos and the other men had a beer together, Parker said.

“They all got together, had a six-pack or 12-pack, talked it over,” he said.

He said Gallegos has been crime-free while in the state.

Judge Loo noted that Gallegos has a criminal record spanning 26 years and three states for crimes including vandalism and stolen cars.

“Some things get better with age — cheese, wine, Sean Connery, may he rest in peace,” Loo said. “But you, at 45, don’t always get better with age.”

She noted that Gallegos brought the gas can and lighter that night, called the other men rats and threatened to burn them as he swung the gas can.

“Luckily, the gas and the lighter never made contact,” Loo said. “Sometimes you need a little less gas and more brakes.”

As part of his probation, Gallegos was ordered to perform 200 hours of community service and complete anger management treatment. He was ordered to write a letter apologizing to Ricky Vargas.

A second-degree murder case is pending against Glennon, 46.