530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), and emphatically reaffirmed that the United States Constitution’s Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial mandates that “ ‘[o]ther than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt.’” Blakely, — U.S. at-, 124 S.Ct. at 2536 (quoting Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 490, 120 S.Ct. 2348). The Sixth Amendment is applicable to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment and we are bound to apply the construction given it by the United States Supreme Court, to the extent it establishes a minimum standard of protection as against government action. See State v. Adrian, 51 Haw. 125, 131, 453 P.2d 221, 225 (1969) (<HOLDING>). Applying the plain import of Blakely and
holding the sixth amendment applicable to the states through the fourteenth amendment holding that any confrontation right is found in the fourteenth amendments due process clause not the confrontation clause of the sixth amendment recognizing the supreme courts interpretation of the federal feloninpossession statute as binding holding that the confrontation clause is applicable to the states through the fourteenth amendment holding that the confrontation clause of the sixth amendment is applicable to the states and therefore the us supreme courts interpretation of the provision is binding upon this court