AFTER pleading guilty to the charge of strangulation last week, Angel Joe “AJ” Ichihara, 28, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio to three years in prison, but all suspended except six months
Ichihara was also given credit for 49 days of time served. After his release from prison, he will be placed on probation for three years.
Ichihara was initially charged with assault and battery, disturbing the peace, strangulation, and vandalism by the government.
At the change of plea hearing on April 5, 2022, Ichihara was represented by Assistant Public Defender Karie Comstock while Chief Prosecutor Chester Hinds appeared for the government.
According to the complaint against Ichihara, he got mad when his girlfriend called the father of her son using Ichihara’s cell phone. She wanted to ask her son’s father to help prepare for their child’s upcoming birthday.
She said Ichihara “threw a huge fit, pushed her with one hand on her left shoulder causing her to fall onto the bed and landing on her right hip.”
She told police that “AJ then put his knee and all his weight on her right hip, holding her down.”
She said “AJ [then] sat on top of her with both his arms on her neck and repeatedly tried to strangle her.”
She added that “AJ held onto her neck for about 30 seconds, and when she tried to get up, AJ…pulled her hair then returned to strangling her.”
She described the first two weeks of her relationship with Ichihara as fine, but once “AJ didn’t get what he asked for she noticed that he started to get violent.”
