Join Us in Congratulating Our 2021 Distinguished Prosecutor Award (Assistant Prosecutor) Recipient!

• Author: Takata, Kevin

Kevin K. Takata was a prosecutor for thirty-three years. He supervised the Criminal Justice Division in the Hawaii Department of the Attorney General and is a former Kauai first deputy prosecutor and a former Honolulu deputy prosecutor. He led the unsolved homicide unit on Kauai and was on the homicide team and Trials Division Chief in Honolulu. He successfully prosecuted numerous high publicity homicides and is credited with the most homicide convictions in Hawaii.

While Kevin prosecuted many noteworthy cases during his long career, perhaps none was more high stakes than that of Xerox gunman Byran Uyesugi, who perpetrated the deadliest mass shooting in Hawaii's history, murdering seven of his co-workers in cold blood in Honolulu on November 2,1999. Kevin served on the team of three Deputy Prosecutors along with Prosecuting Attorney Peter Carlisle and on June 13, 2000 successfully obtained a guilty verdict in the case.

Kevin was born on the tiny, rural island of Lanai, Hawaii. He moved to the windward side of the island of Oahu at age 6 when his father was appointed to serve as the principal of Kahaluu Elementary School. Kevin is a graduate of the University of Hawaii at Manoa (1978) and Case Western Law School (1984).

Kevin has been active in innumerable committees and task forces dedicated to the furtherance of the profession over the course of his career. Kevin served on the following initiatives:

* Committee on Professionalism, Committee Member (2005-present)

* Appointed by Hawai'i Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Moon to assist in the improved...