"It's hard. It's hard. I think about that every so often," said Randy Yoshimura.

He is part of a neighborhood now intimately connected by tragedy.

Yoshimura was one of several people who tried help the night Betty Hagihara died in this Pearl City home in March. 

"I climbed over the fence and I started banging on the walls. I was calling for her to come to the window, but nobody came," he said.

"If could, I would gladly give my life for hers. If I could take it back I would," said Micheal Dahilig in court.

He accepted a plea deal of serving 35 years and a minimum of 11.

He then faced the family that lost a loved one and asked for forgiveness.

"I am asking that one day you may be able to forgive me. I am truly sorry," he said.

"Even after the house had burned down he ruthlessly returned to the scene to steal even more," said Hagihara's grandaughter, Ronette Kawakami, who spoke in court on Tuesday.

"I don't believe he's sincere. I believe if he wasn't caught he's still be doing the same things that he was doing earlier," said Yoshimura.