Wolfgang Clark pulled into a Waipahu strip mall parking lot in December 2023 expecting to deliver $1,300 worth of illegal aerial fireworks to a buyer he met on Instagram.

Instead, he walked right into an undercover operation run by Honolulu and state law enforcement. Clark later gave officers consent to search his home, where they found additional professional fireworks and sparklers.

Clark, a 22-year-old Waipahu resident, was charged with two felony fireworks violations — a rare prosecution in a state that has allowed illegal fireworks to proliferate unchecked.

On Thursday, Oʻahu Circuit Court Judge Trish Morikawa agreed to defer a no contest plea to fireworks possession and sale charges. The ruling allows Clark to avoid a conviction — and avoid up to five years in prison for each felony count — if he stays out of trouble for four years.

She ordered Clark to pay a $5,000 fine, stating “there should be something that has to hurt.” 

In a statement to the court, Clark expressed remorse.

“I’m truly sorry for the choices I made at that time,” he told the judge. “What I did was really stupid.” 

Clark is one of only two people charged so far by a Hawaiʻi Department of Law Enforcement Task Force aimed at combatting illegal fireworks in the islands. The other defendant, Daniel Young, received a nearly identical sentence following similar circumstances: trying to sell $1,500 worth of fireworks to an undercover cop after advertising on social media. 

The task force has seized some 200,000 pounds of fireworks since its inception in 2023, but prosecutions of the major players who are sending and distributing large quantities of fireworks throughout the Hawaiian islands have not materialized. 

Messages left with the Department of Law Enforcement on Thursday were not returned. 

Meanwhile, the group’s work has taken on increased significance following a catastrophic fireworks explosion in Salt Lake on New Year’s Eve that killed six people, including a 3-year-old boy. Several others suffered serious burns and other injuries that necessitated being airlifted to the continent. 

Officials have arrested but not charged at least 10 people in connection with that investigation. Law enforcement has not disclosed where the fireworks in that case originated. 

While Clark was arrested more than a year before that tragedy, his attorney Charles Cryan told the judge the deadly incident weighed on his client.

“That really impressed upon him this can be dangerous,” Cryan said. 

Clark was in the fireworks business only a short time before he was caught, according to Cryan. After buying fireworks via social media from someone he didn’t know previously, Clark was arrested before he could even make his money back, Cryan told Civil Beat.

The prosecution recommended putting Clark on probation, citing comments he made to a presentence investigator. Clark told the officer that he started selling fireworks to make money quickly, that he was mad he got caught and that he would’ve done it for several more years if he hadn’t gotten arrested. 

Clark declined an interview request after his sentencing.

“He made a mistake,” Cryan said in an interview.

Morikawa noted that Clark was unemployed at the time of his arrest and still is.

“Staying at home and not doing anything is part of the reason you came up with this scheme,” she said. “You need to get busy.”

The judge encouraged him to get a job or join the military, which he expressed an interest in doing. The deferral of Clark’s no contest plea will allow him to pursue that if he wants, she noted. The judge waived the payment of fees because Clark lacks income, she said, but kept fines in place to teach Clark a lesson.

“This is going to motivate you to work,” she said. 

Reporter Caitlin Thompson contributed reporting.