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Posted: Thursday, November 20th, 2008 4:44 AM HST

Fireworks injury leads to jail

By Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) _ Two Oahu men have been sentenced to jail for a 2005 New Year's explosion that injured an 11-year-old girl. Circuit Judge Richard Perkins ordered Joelson Ea to serve 12 consecutive weekends in jail and his brother-in-law Marc Bantolina two weekends in jail. The two claimed they were trying to make an aerial firework when it exploded in Aiea, wounding Cydnee Somera. But Deputy City Prosecutor Franklin Pacarro called it an ``improvised explosive device,'' or bomb. Pacarro says Ea and Bantolina had placed a balloon filled with acetylene gas in a metal bucket filled with sand and weighted down with a piece of a barbell. Somera spent a week in the hospital and underwent multiple surgeries to repair damage to her left hand, which was hit with shrapnel. (Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved)