MURDERER ILLUSTRATES 'ICE' RISKS

A Felon Who Says He Became An Addict In Prison Goes On To Commit More Crimes

Convicted murderer Frank Janto says he began using crystal methamphetamine as
an inmate at Halawa prison.

At the time, Janto was serving a five-year sentence for a 1990 assault of an
elderly woman walking along the Ala Wai Canal.

Less than nine months after he was released, Janto killed Wahiawa resident
Bongak "Jackie" Koja on June 9, 1997. Koga was on an early-morning walk when
Janto beat her to death and left her body in a dumpster at Leilehua High
School. He had spent the previous night smoking "ice" and crack cocaine and
drinking.

"When I was released from prison in 1996, I was an addict," Janto wrote from
prison in a letter to the Star-Bulletin. "I couldn't get off, I kept going back
to it, it was the only way I could handle the outside."

Lt. Gov. James Aiona, who is hosting the drug summit beginning tomorrow and who
presided over Janto's trial, said his case illustrates the complexity of
dealing with addiction and crime.

"To say it (the murder) is purely as a result of drugs, I can't say that. Did
drugs play a part of it? I guess so. But it's also just his nature," Aiona
said. "There's no doubt about it. He has the characteristics of a dangerous
criminal."

As a judge, Aiona said he's heard a lot of similar stories of drug and alcohol
abuse.

"There's a lot of Frank Jantos out there as far as the pattern of using," Aiona
said, but he emphasized not all of them commit violent crimes.

Honolulu Prosecutor Peter Carlisle, who personally prosecuted Janto, holds him
up as a poster boy for tougher laws against repeat offenders.

"The only time Frank Janto hasn't committed a crime is when he was in prison
and even then he's committed crimes against other prisoners," Carlisle said.

But Janto wrote that he believes education and treatment are the answer to
Hawaii's drug problem, not tougher sentences.

"To use my case against someone else would be very wrong. There's a lot of ice
users out there who use ice and never hurt no one but themselves," Janto wrote
from the Arizona prison where he is serving a life sentence with a 75-year
minimum. "I don't believe making a tougher law on crystal methamphetamine users
is the answer."

Koja's murder was Janto's fourth felony conviction. Carlisle argues that the
case shows why the state's repeat-offender law needs to be tougher so that
Janto would have been on an extended sentence after his third conviction for
assault in 1991.

"He's an example of someone who should have never been let out. We should have
pulled the plug on him a long time ago," Carlisle said.

Janto was an alcoholic by age 15 and has been in trouble with the law for most
of his life, Carlisle said. He has previous convictions for car theft in 1983
and rape in 1988.

Janto said the way to prevent addicts from committing violent crimes is to make
treatment available.

"Everyone deserves a chance, and even if something happens that is violent, it
doesn't mean this person is a throwaway and should never be given another
chance at life," he wrote.

Janto said he is in a drug treatment in Arizona and is taking Bible studies
classes. He said there is a need for more drug treatment programs in prison.

"I believe treatment and time will change anyone," he wrote.

Janto said he tried to get treatment in Hawaii, but didn't qualify for
Habilitat or prison treatment programs because of the sexual assault
conviction.

Aiona noted, "There's always that window where you could have helped this
person or this person could have gotten help. Now when, where, how and why, I
can't answer those questions about Frank Janto."