Jury deliberations began Wednesday afternoon, following closing arguments, in the murder trial of Eric Thompson, accused of fatally shooting acupuncturist Jon Tokuhara, his wife Joyce’s ex-lover, in 2022.
The jury was instructed it has the option of finding Thompson guilty of manslaughter if, based on the preponderance of the evidence, it finds he was under extreme mental or emotional disturbance Jan. 12, 2022, the day of the shooting.
If the jury does not find he was under extreme mental or emotional disturbance, it can find him guilty as charged of second- degree murder.
Thompson is also charged with carrying or use of a firearm while engaged in the commission of a separate felony.
The first trial, in 2023, ended in a mistrial after jurors failed to come to a unanimous verdict.
“In the last trial, the jury went beyond what had been argued and made conclusions of its own,” Susan Arnett, defense co- counsel in both trials, told the court Tuesday before jurors entered the courtroom.
Deputy Prosecutor Benjamin Rose said in his closing that a case of extreme mental or emotional disturbance is found in a crime of a passion, as when a man finds his wife in bed with another man and kills him.
But he said Thompson weighed the risks and benefits, and when he got to Tokuhara’s Waipahu office, he had disguised himself, already had changed the look of his truck by previously removing his toolbox, and walked slowly.
He is “a deliberate, rational thinker, someone who assesses risks and benefits, not someone who is overcome with emotion,” Rose said.
Rose showed video of Thompson walking near his home, saying his gait, including the swing of his right arm, is similar to that of the suspect in a white bucket hat, long-sleeved windbreaker, long pants, carrying a paper bag, who was caught on multiple surveillance video cameras walking toward Tokuhara’s Waipahu Depot Street clinic, and then later away from it.
The defense countered that thousands of people walk similarly, and asked where was the murder weapon.
As the man in the video was running across the street, the hat fell off his head. Thompson’s defense attorney, Nelson Goo, said Thompson’s hair is black, whereas the suspect’s hair in the video is gray, and the prosecution never said he was wearing a wig. Goo said that Thompson has straight posture, a Roman nose, and walks heal-to-toe, but the “hat guy” is hunched, with a broad nose and walks flat-footed.
The DNA found inside the hat’s crown was analyzed by Cybergenetics, a Pittsburgh company that uses DNA software. The DNA indicated that Thompson was 16.4 trillion times more likely to be a contributor of the DNA than two unknown contributors.
Rose said when combining DNA, “the gold standard,” with video surveillance, “that’s pretty strong evidence,” which is what the defense’s own expert testified.
The defense suggested there might have been cross-contamination at Honolulu Police Department’s crime lab and gotten Thompson’s DNA on the hat.
The state also used video of Thompson’s truck, a Chevy Silverado, leaving his home without a toolbox in the Waipahu area the evening of Jan. 12, 2022, piecing together the movements of the man in the bucket hat and the truck.
Goo said that there is a pet hospital video that shows the Silverado and the “hat guy” in two different places at 6:17 p.m., but the state never showed the jury that video.
And there is no video showing the suspect walking into Tokuhara’s clinic, nor that he ever got in or out of a truck, nor where it was parked.
Goo questioned why, “if it was the perfect crime,” a person would park 11 minutes away.
He also said there was a faulty police investigation, and the lead detective told Joyce Thompson’s sister it took him 50 minutes to drive to Waipahu.
The state’s theory was Thompson drove it in 34 minutes.
The state’s transportation engineer testified traffic was lighter during COVID-19, and that many like himself still worked at home.
Goo claimed HPD failed to find who left an alleged bloody handprint on a door frame, claimed Tokuhara was expecting someone else, since he was wearing a mask, and killed him between 8:10 p.m. and 8 a.m., when he was found the next morning.
He used as evidence Tokuhara’s mother, who was highly emotional, saying the doors were closed shortly after discovering her son’s body.
She told the court she meant the doors were unlocked.
Goo also suggested a host of scorned women and ex- girlfriends’ exes as possible suspects.
Despite testing of the handprint, the results were inconclusive.
But it was the 5,600 text messages between Joyce Thompson and the victim that pointed to the defendant, who learned of the affair in July 2021.
While the state needs only to prove the elements of the crimes, it also showed motive, Rose said.
Police observed it was a homicide, the shooter firing within 3 feet of the victim, four shots to the face, with two bullet wounds to the left and two to the right.
“When Eric Thompson walked into (Tokuhara’s clinic), it was by complete surprise,” Rose said. “It was an ambush. It was a targeted killing. Four shots to the face — it’s personal.”
There was no evidence of a struggle, with picture frames still standing, and folders on the floor of the office were evidence of a man doing work and placing them on the floor, so it was not a robbery, he said. No phones were taken, no money, no defensive wounds.
Deputy prosecutors say the murder occurred at 6:16 p.m., based on direct evidence, DNA evidence and circumstantial evidence.
“You have to look at the evidence in totality to make those reasonable inferences,” Rose said.
The last text read on Tokuhara’s phone was at 6:15 p.m.
Rose said Thompson walked in to Tokuhara’s office at 6:16 p.m., fired the shots and quickly left.
Video surveillance footage shows he left his home at 5:22 p.m. and returned at 6:48 p.m. Jan. 12, 2022.
A defense expert said the user accessed his phone at 6:45 p.m.
Thompson’s alibi was that he was driving to the Waimanalo Convenience Center to dump bricks.
A private investigator hired by the defense testified it took one hour, round trip, to take a load of bricks. But why did Thompson take an additional 20-plus minutes with no bricks or trash bags visible in the bed of his truck?
Rose said it was because he went, not to Waimanalo, but to Waipahu to kill.
Thompson was familiar with .22-caliber firearms, owning two .22-caliber rifles since 2012, and boxes of .22-caliber cartridges were recovered at his home.
Three shell casings found at the crime scene were .22-caliber cartridges.
The state also alleged he burned evidence in a pot in the Thompsons’ yard and, as the state’s expert testified, the bright glow that grew and dimmed was his adding fuel and items to burn.
Thompson said he turned on tiki torches in the yard, so he could play with his daughter that night, and that explained the glow from smokeless propane.
On motive, Rose said it was Thompson, not his wife Joyce’s idea as he claimed, to sign and have notarized a postmarital agreement on Dec. 29, 2021, in the middle of a busy holiday season.
“Even after the murder, the purpose was to keep Joyce Thompson silent,” he said.
The agreement allows Thompson to keep control of his daughter and ownership of their property near Wailupe Beach in East Honolulu.
Rose told jurors not to buy into Thompson’s story that “it was Joyce’s idea to give up motherhood of her daughter.”
Thompson testified he was “pissed” in December 2021 before the postmarital agreement was signed when he overheard his wife talking to friend Kathy Tanita Ohama about psychics. A psychic had encouraged her to have an affair, but this time it was about business decisions, and he got angry at Tanita Ohama.
Rose cited Thompson’s inconsistent testimony in the first trial that he and Joyce were inseparable. Yet in this trial, he emphasized they had separate paths and interests.
“He will do whatever it takes to keep her, including murder,” he said.
A MidWeek photo spread of their wedding Jan. 14, 2017, shows the perfect life he wanted.
“How dare she embarrass him like this (by having an affair),” Rose said. Thompson didn’t tell his family but forced his wife to tell her family.
Rose said,“The only one who had motive is sitting right here,” looking straight at Thompson.
“Jon Tokuhara shouldn’t have engaged in an affair, but he didn’t deserve to be killed,” he added.
