A Waimanalo man who picked up prostitutes on Kukui Street, beat them in his car and raped them on the grounds of a Kailua elementary school faces as much as 140 years in prison following his conviction yesterday of six sex-assault charges and two counts of kidnapping.

A Circuit Court jury deliberated a day and a half before finding John Veikoso, 22, guilty of abducting and raping two women in January and February.

First Deputy Prosecutor Douglas Chin said he will ask Circuit Judge Steven Alm to sentence Veikoso to six consecutive 20-year prison terms and two 10-year terms for each felony he committed.

Veikoso also faces sentencing Sept. 28 for an unrelated firearms offense.

"Mr. Veikoso preyed on a highly vulnerable and unfortunate set of our population," Chin said.

He called the verdict "a victory for all victims of sex assaults."

Veikoso's two victims — 19 and 23 years old — testified during the trial that they accompanied Veikoso in his vehicle after he agreed to have sex with them for money.

The first victim said she was streetwalking near the Longs Drugs' Pali store the night of Jan. 18 and solicited Veikoso when he drove up in a pickup truck.

Veikoso beat her repeatedly as he drove the truck at a high rate of speed up Pali Highway toward Kailua, she said.

The woman said she fought back, kicking at Veikoso as he accelerated the truck past 60 mph.

At the Pali lookout, she said, she fell from the truck's window and landed on the pavement, badly gashing her head, breaking her collarbone and suffering "road rash" scrapes on her legs and hands.

The victim said she struggled to her feet and "ran across four lanes of traffic, screaming for help."

She said she saw six or seven cars but none stopped to help before Veikoso chased her down and dragged her by the hair back to his truck.

"I thought he was going to kill me. He said he was going to kill me," she testified.

She said she was particularly afraid of the dark, remote stretches of the Pali.

"The Pali," she said, "that's where you die."

Veikoso drove her to the grounds of Maunawili Elementary School and sexually assaulted her, she said.

After the assault, the victim was covered in blood and asked Veikoso to drive her to a hospital, she said.

He agreed, and drove her back across the island to Tripler Army Medical Center.

When Veikoso dropped her off at Tripler, he asked her not to say anything about what he had done to her, she said.

But she saved samples of his DNA and gave them to police, she said. The samples were later matched to Veikoso.

The second victim told a similar story of her assault in February. After it was over, she said, she ran away from the school grounds and across Kalaniana'ole Highway where a motorist assisted her.

When she explained that she had been raped and that her attacker still had her cell phone, the motorist drove to the school grounds and then walked up to Veikoso's vehicle to ask for the cell phone, the second victim said.

Veikoso drove away, but the Good Samaritan wrote down the license plate and gave it to police.