Sentenced for murdering acupuncturist in Waipahu love triangle

Jurors in Eric Thompson’s murder trial were unable to reach a unanimous verdict this afternoon, so Circuit Judge Paul Wong declared a mistrial and scheduled a new trial for October 16th.

Thompson was charged with murder on January 12, 2022, in the shooting death of his wife’s ex-boyfriend, John Tokuhara, an acupuncturist who helped the couple conceive a child through infertility.

The jury deliberated for three full days, resulting in a hung jury on charges of second-degree murder and possession or use of a firearm in the commission of another felony.

The body of a 47-year-old man was discovered by his mother lying in a pool of blood on the floor of the Waipahu Acupuncture and Medical Clinic on Waipahu Depot Street on Jan. 13, 2022. He had been shot four times in the face and head with a .22-caliber gun from a distance.

Police did not find the murder weapon but did recover two .22-caliber rifles and boxes of .22-caliber ammunition at the 36-year-old’s home in Wailupe.

Deputy Prosecutor Benjamin Rose told jurors that 11 days before he killed Tokuhara, Thompson had his wife, Joyce, sign a postnuptial agreement in which he would give up custody of their 3-year-old daughter if they divorced. said.

Tokuhara’s cell phone revealed 5,610 Instagram direct messages between Tokuhara and Joyce Thompson, indicating that her husband Eric was aware of the affair.

Prosecutors pieced together surveillance camera footage from a store near Tokuhara’s office and Thompson’s neighbor’s house. Surveillance footage showed a man wearing a bucket hat and face mask walking into the clinic and leaving after 48 seconds, carrying a large brown paper bag. His hat fell off and was later recovered, and DNA was found linking Thompson to his hat.

At about the same time the suspect wearing a bucket hat was seen leaving the crime scene, a white four-door Chevrolet Silverado work truck was seen leaving the area of ​​the clinic. The truck had running boards, similar to the truck Thompson owned and drove that night.

Thompson’s alibi was that when Tokuhara was murdered, he went to a Waimanalo convenience center to dump a bag of bricks and then went to buy some items. However, surveillance video showed the truck bed was empty when Thompson left the home.

Defense lawyer David Hayakawa accused police of failing to eliminate other potential suspects, including the husband and one of Tokuhara’s ex-girlfriend’s boyfriends.

He argued that surveillance footage was questionable, that police cut corners in recovering DNA from the hat, and that prosecutors built the case on cherry-picked evidence.