WAILUKU, Maui — Maui police Detective Jamie Becraft was pinned down in a concrete planter in his yard, being struck multiple times with a baseball bat and other objects Saturday night, when he realized he was in trouble.

"I'm getting hit everywhere. There's shots coming from every angle. I was taking shots to my head," he testified Wednesday. "I knew if I didn't get out of that planter, there was a chance I was going to die."

Still recovering injuries including lacerations requiring stitches above his eye and on his forehead, Becraft described what he remembers of being assaulted — first by three teenagers and then their fathers — starting at 10:30 or 11 p.m. Saturday outside his residence near Waihee Park.

He testified during a preliminary hearing in Wailuku District Court for Leonard Sauceda Jr., 42, of Waihe'e, and his brother Steven Sauceda, 38, of Wailuku. They were arrested along with Leonard Sauceda's 16- and 14-year-old sons and Steven Sauceda's 16-year-old daughter. Becraft said he didn't know any of those involved in the attack.

Judge Kelsey Kawano ruled there was probable cause to support charges of second-degree attempted murder against the two men. Leonard Sauceda Jr. also was charged with second-degree criminal property damage for an estimated $3,800 in damage done to a pickup truck parked in the driveway.

Kawano kept bail at $235,000 for Leonard Sauceda Jr. and at $230,000 for Steven Sauceda, who are both being held at the Maui Community Correctional Center. They are scheduled to be arraigned April 21 in 2nd Circuit Court.

ATTACK RECALLED

About 50 people, most of them police officers, packed the courtroom gallery as the 42-year-old Becraft testified.

The 20-year police veteran, who is assigned to the Lahaina Criminal Investigation Division, said he was in his house when he heard a youth yelling and bashing mailboxes along Kahekili Highway near the park. Wearing only a pair of shorts, Becraft went outside on his porch and saw the boy using a cast on his right arm to hit Becraft's mailbox, which is across the street.

When he asked why the boy was doing that, Becraft said the youth responded by saying, "F--- you, you f------ haole," telling Becraft to go back into his house and "you're not even on duty."

Becraft approached the teenager and told him he was under arrest. Becraft said he expected the boy to run, but he instead lunged, trying to hit Becraft's head and upper body with the cast.

Another boy and the girl showed up, surrounding Becraft. As he blocked blows from the cast, Becraft said the other boy rushed at the officer. He punched the boy, who fell to the ground. The boy got up and again lunged at Becraft, who hit the boy again, causing him to fall, Becraft said.

He said the girl was screaming and moving toward him when he hit her with his left hand.

Becraft said he ended up on the ground in the street being kicked and punched on his head and back. He tried spinning to get away and bit one boy in the stomach when he tried to keep a hold on Becraft's arm.

Becraft said he moved backward and went into his house to wake his wife and tell her to call 911 before going back outside because a boy was on the porch.

Following her husband outside, Velma Becraft said she saw Steven Sauceda running with a wooden baseball bat from across the street and going over a stone wall into her front yard.

"I saw him raise the bat, and he was yelling, 'F------ cop, you hit my f------ daughter.' " Velma Becraft said. "That's when he swung. He hit my husband across the left side."

Jamie Becraft managed to wrestle the bat away.

ALUMINUM BAT

His wife said two vehicles then pulled up and Leonard Sauceda Jr. emerged with an aluminum bat, threatening Jamie Becraft and saying, "You hit my son. You hit my son."

A boy without a front tooth blocked Velma Becraft while yelling, "Your husband hit me, look at my face," she said.

She said she saw the boy take the wooden bat away from her husband and hit him across the back.

A rock was thrown at her after she retrieved their daughter's aluminum bat, which she swung to try to get attackers off her husband.

Leonard Sauceda was holding Jamie Becraft's head down into the planter with one hand while using the other hand to swing the aluminum bat, Velma Becraft said. On the other side was Steven Sauceda, she said.

The boy with the cast and the one missing a tooth also were hitting and kicking her husband, she said.

While he wasn't sure of the exact sequence of events, Jamie Becraft said, he was against a truck parked in his driveway at one point, bent over and using his arms to protect his head as the boy without the tooth swung a bat at him at least three times.

"I know I got to watch him because if I blink and miss one shot, it's done," Becraft said. "If he hits my head with that bat, I know he's going to kill me."

As police sirens neared, some of the attackers left. But Velma Becraft said Leonard Sauceda stayed and used a bat to break the headlights of the parked truck, which also had its windshield shattered and dents in its hood, right fender, bed and right side door.

Becraft said the bottom of his toes were raw, and he suffered abrasions, contusions and cuts on his body. He said he and his brother counted 19 baseball bat strikes to his body, including his face, back, forearm, midsection and ribs.

PERMANENT DAMAGE

Detective William Gannon testified that one doctor who examined Becraft said there was a risk of permanent disfigurement to his left eye, which was severely swollen. Another physician reported the injuries created a substantial risk of death, Gannon said.

Defense attorneys Thomas Kolbe, representing Leonard Sauceda, and Michelle Drewyer, representing Steven Sauceda, argued against the attempted-murder charge, saying there was little evidence that either man inflicted blows to Becraft's head.

But Deputy Prosecutor Jerrie Sheppard said the two adults also were charged as accomplices to the two boys.

"The blows that were inflicted were done in unison by all four of those people," Sheppard said. "Those blows were deadly in nature, especially when they were uppercuts to his body. He almost lost consciousness. His wife defended him. Because she was able to wield the bat against his attackers, Mr. Becraft was able to stay on his feet. That's a sheer will to live."