Murder suspect testifies about wife’s affair

On the day a Waipahu acupuncturist was fatally shot in his office, the 36-year-old man accused of murdering him took bricks to a dump before playing with his daughter.

Testifying Thursday before a jury in Oahu Circuit Court, Eric Thompson described his whereabouts on Jan. 12, 2022, when Jon Tokuhara, 47, was killed and how he discovered his wife’s affair with the victim.

Thompson maintained he never talked to Tokuhara after learning in July 2021 that he was sleeping with his wife, Joyce, and certainly didn’t shoot him four times in the face at close range at Tokuhara Acupuncture and Healthcare on Waipahu Depot Street.

Thompson was arrested Feb. 14, 2022, and indicted by an Oahu grand jury April 22, 2022, on charges of second-degree murder and carrying or use of a firearm in the commission of a separate felony. He remains free after posting $1 million bail.

The evening Tokuhara was killed, Thompson was not in Waipahu, he said. Instead, he was taking trash bags of bricks to the dump from his home in Wailupe.

It was dark when he got home at 6:48 p.m., and his wife had made dinner and his daughter had already eaten, he said. Thompson testified that he took a quick shower and then ate dinner before taking his daughter outside to play in the yard.

“Eric, on January 12, 2022, or January 13, 2022, did you kill Jon Tokuhara?” his attorney, David Hayakawa, asked.

“No, I didn’t,” Thompson replied.

“Did you have anything to do with being in Waipahu or anything to do with that entire incident?” Hayakawa asked.

“No. I had nothing to do with it,” Thompson replied.

At about 9:54 p.m. Jan. 12, 2022, Thompson went to buy beer and eggs at the Longs Drugs in Hawaii Kai and paid cash, he said. The next day, Thompson and his wife were cleaning up their downstairs home office when she got a phone call that Tokuhara had been found shot to death.

“I immediately knew something was wrong because my wife’s face just … dropped; she had a look of dread,” Thompson said. “She started crying. No one knew what happened at the time. Joyce … Joyce thought that she had something to do with his … death.”

For more than four hours on the witness stand Thursday, Thompson talked about his life and marriage. He said that he and Joyce were high school sweethearts a year apart in school.

“We were together all the time; we were inseparable,” he said as Hayakawa displayed photos from Thompson’s senior prom and graduation from the University of Hawaii.

During his first year in college, he would pick up Joyce and her siblings from school, Thompson said.

“She would buy an extra school lunch for me. Everybody loves public school lunches, right?”

Before he learned of their affair, Thompson credited Tokuhara with helping his wife calm down and work through the stress of trying to get pregnant. The defendant said he started getting suspicious when she asked him to watch their daughter while she went out with family friends who she said were in town.

Thompson testified he found it weird that he was not invited to go along. His mind started spinning when he saw his wife on his home security system leave the house at night without telling him while he was away on business. He said he at first thought she was cheating on him with a family friend from out of town.

“Jon helped us have Emma; he knew how hard we were trying. … It just never … I would never suspect (him), ” Thompson said. “It just didn’t make sense. Jon helped us through the pregnancy. I just wouldn’t understand why he would do that if he was just going to blow it up later.”

Thompson admitted being angry but told the court he never talked to Tokuhara or communicated with him after his wife admitted the affair. The couple was focused on reconciliation, and the days and months that followed the revelation were difficult, he testified.

On at least three occasions, Joyce went to stay with her parents. Eric Thompson said he initially suspected her sister of being in on the cover-up and banned her from coming around the couple’s daughter.

He said he realized he was being a “jerk” and that the issue was between him and his wife. Hayakawa showed Thompson and the court pictures from Halloween and Christmas 2021 that showed a happy family reveling in the holidays.

Police investigating Tokuhara’s death saw a white, four-door Chevrolet Silverado in surveillance videos near the victim’s office the day he was killed. Honolulu Police Department detectives narrowed their search to 53 Silverado trucks from the 2014 to 2016 model years, and only one truck’s owner was linked to Tokuhara: Eric Thompson.