Hailey Dandurand appears in court and in a Facebook photo with her ex-boyfriend, Stephen Brown, inset, on the left. (Screengrab via Hawaii News Now; Facebook/selfie)
A woman in Hawaii is facing several decades in prison – but will have an opportunity for release sometime in the future – over the brutal slaughter of a woman killed while her daughter was nearby.
Hailey Dandurand, 26, was convicted of murder, kidnapping and burglary by Honolulu jurors on Tuesday. On Friday, the jury decided she will be punished with life in prison with the possibility of parole.
The defendant will be formally sentenced by a judge – who will determine how many years her life sentence will entail before she is eligible for parole – on Nov. 15
Prosecutors requested the maximum punishment under Aloha State law for the exceedingly violent machete-and-other-weapons murder of substitute teacher Telma Boinville, 51, who was killed at a vacation home in Pupukea where she worked as a house cleaner for extra money to support her 8-year-old daughter.
“Near the body was a bloodied hammer, knife and mallet,” officials wrote in a criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime.
After the slaying, Dandurand and her then-boyfriend, Stephen Brown, 29, kidnapped and tied up the victim’s daughter, leaving her inside the home where the killers taunted the child with her mother’s death.
The couple fled in Boinville’s truck and were apprehended some seven hours later in Mililani after an intense and quick social media campaign, according to Honolulu-based CBS affiliate KGMB, NBC affiliate KHN, and Telemundo affiliate KFVE – television stations that collectively operate under the banner of Hawaii News Now.
As the killers were taken into custody, they both requested to die
“He spontaneously uttered, ‘Just shoot me, I deserve this,’” officers said of Brown. Dandurand echoed the grim ask: “Can you just pull your gun out and shoot me in the head, my life is over after today.”
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This week, jurors decided the woman’s life was not over.
“Please give her a chance, even if it’s 30 years from now, or 40 years from now — she is a human being with morals and values,” Sunshine Dandurand, Hailey Dandurand’s mother pleaded, according to Hawaii News Now, arguing against the state’s request for no possibility of parole. “This is a life sentence. This is the death penalty.”
According to the TV station, defense attorney Barry Sooalo tried a similar argument: “This is the young lady, you’re being asked to decide whether or not she has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.”
The defendant’s grandmother tried a different avenue.
“I’m pleading that you offer more memories,” Laree Purdy, Dandurand’s grandmother, told jurors. “Let her be an asset to Hawaii. She can do much good in the future. As a citizen, she had no record she never got in trouble. This was not in Hailey’s nature.”
The state highlighted the brutality of Boinville’s death and what the defendant did to the victim’s child after the slaying.
“Where was the empathy on December 7, 2017, when Makana was bound and gagged and left in that bedroom?” Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bell asked. Then he answered. “There was no empathy, no selflessness, no caring, nor was there compassion.”
In the end, jurors found and used compassion of their own.
Brown was also recently convicted of murder, kidnapping, and burglary for the crime. He is slated to be sentenced on Aug. 30.
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