WAILUKU – Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner Darren Benitez said he wanted to “make a better life,” as he was sentenced Tuesday for possessing methamphetamine found in his guitar case at Kahului Airport last year.
Benitez, 50, who lives on Oahu, was given a chance to keep drug convictions off his record if he follows court requirements for the next five years.
“The case is important,” 2nd Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza told Benitez. “Your life is more important. I hope you overcome this.”
Cardoza followed a plea agreement in sentencing Benitez.
He had pleaded no contest to third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug and possessing drug paraphernalia.
Benitez was arrested shortly before midnight Nov. 15 after a Transportation Security Administration screener opened a guitar case Benitez had checked in and found a black waist pack containing a glass smoking pipe with suspected crystal methamphetamine residue and a plastic packet containing what appeared to be crystal methamphetamine.
After the arrest, Benitez moved from Waianae to east Oahu and was undergoing intensive outpatient treatment, said Deputy Public Defender Jasmine King.
“It’s an uplifting experience to know what he’s done so far,” she said.
“He’s lived a law-abiding life until now,” King said. “I think his position in the entertainment business got him into this pickle.”
Benitez, who is known for the song “Mother of the Sea,” won a Na Hoku Hanohano Award in 1996 for Most Promising Artist of the Year.
“I want to make a better life, live a clean life,” Benitez said in court.
Deputy Prosecutor Mark Simonds said Benitez appeared to have owned up to “a lifetime of casual use of methamphetamine.”
“There really is no such use as casual use when it comes to this drug,” Simonds said. “It’s a highly addictive substance.
“I think he has stepped up. He’s taking charge of this. I think he does want to change his life and acknowledge that he does have an addiction.”
Simonds said Benitez was honest in an interview with a probation officer about not paying taxes or filing tax returns.
“That’s one thing that will have to change,” Simonds said.
He said that if Benitez finds himself struggling, he should remember the story of Mackey Feary, lead singer of Kalapana, “who we lost to ice addiction” when he committed suicide while incarcerated in 1999.
Referring to Benitez, Simonds said: “We don’t want to lose him. We want to see him succeed.”
* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.
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