323. The Killer in the Bucket Hat

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But what I wanted to talk about for my 10 seconds is, so I've been drinking these. This isn't an ad. Just letting everyone out. This is personal. I've been drinking these ginger, lemon, and cayenne pepper shots because I've been working a lot and I really don't want to get sick and I feel like everyone else around me is sick right now. So I've been drinking one of these a day and I feel like it's been helping, but it could just be a placebo effect. So I'm curious if for anyone who knows a lot about like juicing and tumouric and ginger and all that stuff, does it actually help? Like is it actually helping me or am I just drinking these for no reason? Because they burn. Like, when you drink these things, they burn your throat. It's crazy. Anyways, yeah, that's my 10 seconds. I'm just curious. I never know what works and what doesn't work these days. So I feel like I always have to ask people. I can do research into it, but I also want to hear about it from you guys. What a weird world we live in that you can't actually just like trust what the packaging does, or like what the studies say, I mean, I don't even think it studies like you hear about things and then they're like, oh, we taking your supplements and then a year later, they're like, most supplements don't even actually make it through your stomach. It's like, what? Yeah, I know. There's just so much research that goes into this stuff. Anyways, so does it work? I've been drinking it. I haven't gotten sick. So let me know. Daisy's been, so Daisy, I can't say this word out loud. So you guys are going to have to spell. We went to California for a few days and we were able to get away my birthday and we went to the P O O L and she SWAM a lot and like a lot, but she's just been, I think she's depressed. She's been very sad the last couple of days since we've been back. Entire. Entire. I think she's sad. It's a little fake because I don't know if it's fake, but when we do the P O O L days, all day long, all day, going, going, never runs out of energy, but then sleeps all day. I'm like, well, yeah, when we get home and she's sleeping all day, I'm like, how does that work? Like right now, just look at her sleeping past out. Her muscles have to be so sore after those long days because it's not just the, it's not just the playing in the water. She runs, she gets, gets out of the pool and runs like six, eight hours, just swimming, running, swimming, running, swimming, running. She's frantic. Yeah. Crazy. Anyways. That's what I got. That's my 10 seconds. Let's hop into this week's episode. Okay. Our sources for this episode are CBS news.com. Y-tribunearral.com, k-o-n-2.com, hawaii-publicradio.org, staradvertiser.com, hawaiinewsnow.com, nbcnews.com, k-i-tv.com, longcrime.com, marietta.coms.com, happyscribe.com, and peacock TV. Now most people, when they think of hawaii, they probably imagine crystal blue beaches, warm summer air on your skin. Maybe in my tie in front of a sunset. But if you've visited, you know hawaii is so much more than that. The culture there is unlike anything else. It seems like everyone is always smiling, helpful, thoughtful, kind. In fact, they have a word for the energy in lifestyle. It's called the aloha spirit, but even in a place built on warmth and compassion, true crime still exists. Do- sorry, do we have any listeners from hawaii? Probably. Anyways, if you're listening from hawaii, let us know. And how sad hawaii is not exempt from our podcast, as it feels like it should be, as so darkness can definitely still slip through because hawaii, despite always being on island time, as real people with real problems and real secrets. Which is why today's story is a reminder that sometimes evil can strike in the places we least expect it to, even in paradise. So based on that intro, you probably know where we're headed to today. We are headed to the state of hawaii, the island of Oahu to be exact. Where just northwest of Pearl Harbor lies the small community of Waipahu. But I did look up how to say these, I know the accent is probably not correct. I'm definitely saying it in a very American, like, non-Hawaii accent. But Waipahu. Nice job, baby. Thanks. You're welcome. Now, Waipahu is a working class town with a lot of ancient history, a place where families have known each other for generations, where childhood friends stick with you for life, where you refer to your neighbors as auntie and uncle, where life definitely moves slow, but news spreads fast. And in a place like that, secrets, if you want to keep them, need to be protected with your life. And unfortunately, that was the price John Tokuhara paid to keep his secrets. In the year 2022, 47-year-old John was living in Waipahu, the place he'd spent most of his life in Hawaii. And so everyone there knew John, they knew him as a good person. He had been like that ever since he was a little kid. He studied hard. He was extremely athletic, baseball, surfing, fishing, volleyball. You name it. And in high school, he even led his volleyball team to a few championships. Like most young adults, John wanted to experience more of the world or at least more of his country. So he ended up going to the mainland for college and studied at the University of Portland, where he got his degree in biology. And then after that, he actually earned a master's degree in Chinese medicine and acupuncture. Now this master's degree wasn't exactly surprising to those who knew John. He'd always just had that calm, soft, protective spirit, the kind of guy who would volunteer his time to help veterans who always wanted to make sure everyone was happy and comfortable. So after receiving his degree, John then returned back to Hawaii after spending six years away. He moves back and he opens up a small acupuncture studio in his hometown and became known locally as "the healer." Now, he had a modest operation. John was the only one who worked at this little clinic and it also allowed him the freedom and flexibility to enjoy the little pleasures of life. He kept his canoe and surfboard at his acupuncture clinic and had no problem closing up early for a day at sea if a client canceled or rescheduled. So John loves being his own boss. He's in charge of his own destiny, free to come and go as he pleases and doesn't have an answer to anyone, which was probably why he chose to stay single for a while and never really settle down because he was just living this Hawaii dream life. But John didn't need a partner to feel fulfilled. He had a huge circle of friends and there was always someone he was flirting with or just dating casually. Most women actually found John to be excessively charming. He had a huge smile, kind eyes. There's no wonder he had a lot of female clients. And one of his specialties in this field was actually fertility acupuncture. Now a lot of women came to John specifically when they were trying to get pregnant. So all of this to say, John was one of a kind in Waipahu and by 2022, he had firmly cemented himself not just as the basically unofficial mayor, but as someone the town definitely relied on someone they needed to feel safe, happy, healthy and balanced. So you can imagine how shocked and devastated everyone was when they heard about the events that came next in this story on the evening of January 12, 2022, John closed up his shop after seeing his final client. He then texted a woman he had recently started dating, a local school teacher named Andy. And he tells her he had a bit more work and some phone calls to make. And this was at about 5.30 pm. and then a half hour later, John and his mother Lily also speak on the phone and she invites him over for dinner that night. Around 6.12 p.m., she texts him asking if Andy, the, you know, friendly teacher, will be joining. And John responds to the text message and says it's just going to be me tonight. And then at 6.15, his mother Lily texts him back saying, okay, and her message is red, but there's no response after that. So now we have dinner plans cemented. She knows it's just John coming. He's read her message good to go. But instead, an hour ticks by. And then two. And it's now 8.34 p.m. And John hasn't made it to Lily's house for dinner yet. It's getting late. She's getting worried as his mother. So she texts him again and says, are you still at the office? No response. And this time her message is left unread. So she sends another one at 9.32 p.m. saying, are you okay? The message is still unread. So when she wakes up the next morning and realizes her son still isn't answering his calls or texts, she decides to just go to his office to talk to him. So Lily heads over. She walks inside. And that's when she actually finds her son, John, lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood in his office. Lily barely musters a call to 911. And as soon as the police arrive, they know they definitely have a homicide case on their hands. And just keep in mind, this is shocking for everyone in this local area. This is not necessarily a place area. It's very family oriented, home, smaller. So they're all like, oh, no, our local healer has died. So there's three 22 caliber shell casing scattered around the clinic. And it appears John was shot while sitting in his office chair and then from there fell onto the floor. Now there's no signs of a struggle or a fight of any kind. It doesn't even appear to be a robbery because nothing's been taken. In fact, there's about $3,900 in cash wrapped up and labeled with the word herbs in a backpack, lying right under his desk like next to his body. So if this was a robbery, that would have probably been taken. Now an autopsy will later determine John was shot not once, but four times in the head. So this is definitely a targeted killing. It's personal. Now before the story can even make its way to the headlines that day, all of Waipahu knows about it. Each person finds it more unbelievable than the next. How does someone so caring, so kind, so selfless end up as a murder victim? As far as everyone knows, John was basically liked by everyone. His friends couldn't think of a single enemy. And if it wasn't a robbery, then what was this? Well, the police are just as baffled as John's friends and family are. They don't even know where to start when it comes to suspects. So they quickly turned to the public for help, asking if anyone saw anything. A suspicious vehicle in the area, a suspicious person, anything that seemed out of place. And meanwhile, flowers pile up outside of John's clinic. And the town holds a vigil for John, where pretty much every single person in Waipahu shows up to pay their respects. His surfer friends arrange something called a paddle out where hundreds go out on their boards to the ocean. They form a like processional ceremony and deliver John's ashes from the beach to the sea. People said you would have thought John was a celebrity with how many people came out to mourn his loss. But for police, that also meant a lot more people demanding answers wanting to know what had happened. So the pressure was on to solve this case. And there were two big things about the crime scene that investigators couldn't stop thinking about from the beginning. First, was that backpack filled with cash underneath the desk, the one labeled herbs. The second was John was wearing a surgical mask on his face when he was shot, the kind that we all wore during COVID. But why are you wearing a mask if you're in your office alone after hours. So this made police wonder was John actually expecting someone? Was there supposed to be some sort of exchange or transaction that went sideways? Was he in debt to someone he was trying to repay? So detectives decide to look through his appointment book and they see there was nothing on the books for that night. His last client left the clinic at 5.30 pm. He was a woman named Kathy Ohama. So they call her in for questioning to see if she noticed anything strange considering she's like the last known to see him that they know of. And she says John was acting normal at her appointment. He didn't seem nervous or depressed or irritable just as same old self. So this is when they turn to Andy, John's new girlfriend, if you will. And while she herself has never seemed suspicious to them, they do learn something about her past. Andy had been dating someone named Darryl Fujita for years. And basically every time she and Darryl broke up, she would get together with John. And this was including after this most recent breakup. So this wasn't just a casual thing between Darryl and Andy. They actually had a house. They had a kid together. And John was her rebound her in between. And Darryl knew about John. I just have no, I have no idea right now. Like no hints. Nothing is kind of giving it away. So police called Darryl in for questioning thinking, okay, maybe this is some sort of like jealousy thing. But throughout his interview, he keeps telling police, listen, yeah, this is our situation, but there's no bad blood between him and John. He didn't care that Andy would date him. So officers are like, hey, can we see your phone? He gives it to them, but he does a hard factory reset first. Now obviously this makes him look suspicious. Like what's he trying to hide? But also like he's probably could be one of the persons is like I deserve privacy. I don't know. So the police definitely have their eye on Darryl. I mean, that's kind of weird, but it's not enough for an arrest. So they keep searching for evidence. They canvass the area around John's clinic, looking for any place that has some kind of security footage. And they post up for hours watching all of the videos they gather frame by frame until eventually, they actually see something of note, a person walking toward John's clinic on the day of his murder. They're standing on the other side of the street and just staring at his door. But what police find interesting is this person's outfit. They have sunglasses, a surgical mask, a heavy windbreaker jacket, and a white bucket hat. And they are carrying a brown paper bag. Now they're in a white. This is weird. It's a hot day. A heavy windbreaker doesn't make much sense, but still this person is captured along multiple cameras in the area kind of just wandering around. And he's seen there just four minutes before John stops responding to those texts to his mom. Okay, that's kind of interesting. But the person has never seen walking through the front door of John's acupuncture clinic. Instead, he crosses the street, walks past to the front door, and then turns left and heads down the street, almost like towards the back of the office building. But there's no cameras back there, so police have to assume he either went that way and left, or went that way and went in. And then shortly after 6.15 pm, the bucket hat figure reappears, headed in the opposite direction he came after only disappearing behind that building for about a minute and a half. Now police realize like this timeline does fit perfectly. And they feel pretty confident that whoever this person is is now their number one suspect. They're pretty sure this person went behind the building, went in and in a minute and a half shot him and left. And they also see something critical happen on the security footage. The person's bucket hat actually flies off into the road, that's the crossing the street, and they don't go back for it. It's almost like they don't even notice it. Like, they notice it, but it's not a big deal to them. And instead, the hat just sits in the road for a bit. Until what seems like an unhoused man walks by and picks it up. And then the footage shows the suspect walk back in the original direction they came. And that's when you realize why they maybe didn't even notice the hat fly off. And it's because underneath that hat, they were wearing some kind of ridiculous wig. No way. Curly, almost like a clown wig. Like, the wig was stuck in the hat. Well, the hat came off the wig, but that's probably why they didn't even really like register. Oh, I see what you're saying. Because they didn't feel it come off their actual head because there was that layer of disguise. But two good things come from this footage as police continue to analyze it. First, they get a pretty good screenshot of the man who picked up the hat. So about 10 days later, they go to the area, they find a local encampment, and they track down the man who picked up the hat. And shockingly, he still has this. It's a balled up line next to a cooler. Which is tricky because the hope was they could test this hat for evidence, but now there's a possibility it's been touched by a dozen different people. Still, they take it and send it to the Honolulu Police Department's Crime Lab for testing. It's gonna take a few weeks to get those results back though. So in the meantime, they keep looking over that footage. Just, this is their only lead. They're combing it. Have they missed anything? And that's when they do see a specific white pickup truck. One that seems to arrive in the area before the alleged attacker comes on screen, and then leaves pretty shortly after the man's hat flies off. Now, unfortunately, they can't make out the driver in the truck to tell if it's the person, and they aren't even able to get a license plate, but that doesn't stop them from calling in an expert. An expert who helps them identify the makin' model, somewhere between a 2014 and 2016 white Chevy Silverado. And when they run this model through the local DMVs database, they find there's about 53 of those vehicles registered in the area that could be a match. - I mean, that's not bad. - No. - Honestly, that's not too bad. It might-- - It seems like a lot, but-- - Like, could you imagine, yeah, no, it seems like a lot. That's actually not, that's not too bad. - You can comb through 53. So they start going through the owners, one by one, looking to see if any of them even had a connection to the victim John. - Because that's the other thing. I mean, if the car stole them, then you're really out of luck. - Right, but eventually they do narrow it down to one person, an owner. A man named Eric Thompson. So now let's figure out why Eric stood out to police. A little bit, about 34-year-old Eric, he was a local business owner of a place called Island Bath Works, which specialized in bathtub conversions for the elderly or those with special needs. He was a graduate of the University of Hawaii. He had married his high school sweetheart Joyce. He had a young daughter and lived in a nice neighborhood just east of downtown Honolulu. Their home had a tennis court, rental units on-site. - Dang, okay. - Was a quick walk to the beach. - Making money, especially in Hawaii is so expensive. Not just houses, everything. Like, everything there is extremely expensive. - And the thing was, like, on the surface, no one who knew John had ever heard of Eric or Joyce Thompson before. So the connection doesn't make much sense, but the police feel differently because they are the ones who had access to John's phone and computers, and they had found something on there they weren't expecting. John actually had a private Instagram account. His family didn't know about. And in that account, thousands of messages exchanged between John and Joyce Thompson. Messages that basically indicated an affair. Now Joyce is Eric. - Okay. - Why? - Got it. - High school sweetheart, to be exact. So when they know this, when they know there's an alleged affair and they're going through the pickup truck owners and they realize that Eric, Joyce's husband owns one, they're like, yeah, this is our number one suspect. Now, their affair seemed to start up around May of 2021 and lasted until about July of that year. And towards the end, Joyce had expressed fears of her husband finding out, and she was the one who called things off. But here's how it played out from Eric's side of things, her husband. Before the birth of their daughter in 2020, Eric and Joyce were having a hard time trying to conceive. And after months of felt attempts and miscarriages, a friend recommended that Joyce go to see an acupuncturist on Wapahoo known as the healer. That's obviously John. Now, after several treatments with John Joyce finally did get pregnant and they had their little girl in June of 2020. But Eric said Joyce struggled a bit emotionally after the birth of their daughter. So Joyce decided to return to John for more treatments thinking it would help her postpartum. - Okay. - This isn't a secret, okay? Her husband, Eric knows she's going, knows where she's going. But over time, there were little things Joyce was saying and doing that just felt strange. For example, there was one time when Joyce claimed some family friends were in town, but instead of getting a sitter and inviting him to come along, she asked Eric to watch their daughter while she goes out and sees the family friends. It was little things like this that started to make Eric question what Joyce was up to in her alone time, which was why he began keeping a closer eye on their home security cameras. And after he returned home from a work trip and played them back one day, he saw that Joyce had actually left the house one night while he was away without telling him. And so that was when he felt for sure, okay, Joyce is sneaking around on me. So in July of 2021, Eric confronted her about it and she denies it for about two days and then finally she confesses to everything. - Okay. And when Eric asked, okay, well, are you cheating with one of our family friends? She's like, no, it's with John, my acupuncturist. - So, I mean, I think I know where this is going, but. - Eric's totally blindsided. Even stranger, Joyce tells her husband, it was her sidekick that was encouraging her to have this affair. - What is up? - Apparently Joyce consulted with sidekicks for a lot of her decision making. - That's nuts. - And they were the ones who were like, yeah, step out of your marriage, here's the green light. - You know, I hear this happen a lot. - You gotta be careful with the sidekicks. - I hear this happen a lot. - Yeah. - It's crazy to me. - And you know, you gotta have your own intuition, even if you fully trust in a sidekick. You have to because at the end of the day, you know you better than anyone. - 100, 100%, I agreed. - At least in your heart, you know. - Dude, I'd be so mad at that sidekick. - And also like. - I'm so mad, are you kidding me? - Giving the green light for an affair is very different than giving the green light for a divorce. Like a sidekick being like, listen, I don't think this marriage is for you. You've tried everything, you don't wanna be here. - I'm also on the side of everyone just has to kind of experience and make decisions themselves at some point. - Yeah. - Like even if you're trying to tell a friend or someone, like, hey, you shouldn't be dating this person or you shouldn't do that. Totally okay to do that. But I feel like decisions are never made until that person actually has an experience and makes a decision. Like I think it's pretty hard to actually convince someone to make a decision about something big in life like that. Like someone has to, someone has to do it themselves out of their own free will. - Right. - Anyways, I don't know, just my thoughts. - 'Cause oftentimes if they don't, they end up doing it wrong in the least. - They regret it the more they go back with the person. I mean, I don't know, there's so many things. - And this is hard because like, is a sidekick really different than like a friend, like a good trusted friend at this point who's like encouraging this bad behavior or. - Well that depends how much you believe that the sidekick knows the future or not. - I think there's variables there. Anyways. - Listen, I know they say everything happens for a reason but sometimes you really can't just leave. You know what I'm saying? - Yeah. - Like sometimes you really don't need that excuse. You can just not do it. - Mm-hmm. - Here's the thing. When Eric finally gets in front of the police because police come in, they're like, "Hey, you have this truck, you have this connection." He's like, "Listen, I had nothing to do with John's death." Eric said he was planning to work through the situation with his wife like they were gonna work through it. They were gonna go to therapy, get the whole thing behind them. They agreed on signing a post-marital agreement which would give Eric everything including the house and custody of their daughter should their marriage come to an end. Whether it was his fault or hers. Eric said he looked at the affair as a sign that he was falling short a bit as a partner in their marriage and that he needed to be there more for Joyce so she didn't feel like she was needing to seek attention and Joyce claimed she didn't actually want to leave her husband either. She too wanted to work through it which was why she had ended the affair. And Eric does tell police like, "Yes, I'm very angry. Of course I considered confronting John about the affair but he says he never followed through. He just left it alone and focused on working on his marriage." Now from October to December of that year, according to Joyce and Eric, things were looking up between the Thompson's. They were seen photographed together at several different holiday outings. Plus, Eric told police, "No, I have an alibi for the night of January 12th, 2022, the night John died." He said it around the time of John's death which is pretty specific considering the security footage. He was on the other side of the island getting rid of some construction debris at a dump. And then at 9.54 pm, he went too long. drugs in a residential area of Honolulu to buy beer and eggs. And then after that, he went home. He could all buy. He said he actually learned about John's death the following afternoon when Joyce received the call that John had been killed. But from what I could tell police were actually never able to like fully corroborate Eric's whereabouts that night or find evidence to confirm his album. It's not like they could see his, you know, it seemed interesting though. It seems like they could get the cameras from the. It feels like maybe there's not a lot of cameras in the area. Okay. Like there's definitely some, but maybe not as much as a large city, if you will, which is why in early February, the police decide to search the Thompson's home for evidence. And not only did they see Eric's pickup truck exactly like the ones spotted in the footage around John's clinic, they also find a lot of guns in the Thompson's house, about 12 total ton of ammunition. Some of it was 22 caliber. This is the same type that was found at the crime scene. However, none of the guns or bullets exactly matched the shell casings found at the scene. And when police confiscated and searched Eric's phone and computer, they didn't find a single text call email search history, anything that was indicating he was planning to kill John. Okay. So all right. So if Eric didn't do it, who did it? Well, it gets even worse because there's no sign his phone ever traveled to Waipahu on the day in question. And there's no evidence that he tried to get in contact with John since the affair ended in July the year before it looks like he really did just leave it alone. Imagine setting your makeup. Then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new grippy setting mist from Mavelin New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just clump to a hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Mavelin New York. Maybe it's Mavelin. So basically at this point, the only thing connecting Eric to the crime was a potential motive and a fair that had ended seven months ago. And then possibly his car on some footage, be extremely difficult to bring to. Yeah. And so please realize at this point, they're like either Eric is innocent or he's good at cleaning up his tracks. Like we haven't found anything. But they still have that huge clue that needs to be analyzed, the bucket hat detectives are hoping they can find DNA from the hat that will prove their theory is correct. I mean, I know it's I guess big evidence, but I still don't think that's like damning evidence. I mean, if you find DNA and a hat that using this suspect was wearing, I don't know if it's like about how can you also prove that that was that that was the suspect. Right. I think it's really easy to argue for a defense team to be like, what if he picked it up and wore it later? What have he had before that? Correct. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Yes. The results finally do come back in 2022. Most of them are inconclusive. Okay. But there's two that said Eric could not be excluded as a contributor. Now, this is not definitive, not by a long shot, but it's enough for them to decide to get in a rest warrant for Eric. They're like, listen, we couldn't exclude you from the bucket hat. We think you have the most motive. Your truck does match the security footage. Like we're going to move. Yeah. To me, honestly, the part that's the most like criminalizing or damning is the is the truck matching the security footage. Well, and you have a pretty clear cut motive. I mean, this is a motive we see time again and murder. Yeah. And we talk about it all the time. I mean, how many coincidences can there possibly be? Like, how can you be the guy your wife was or how can this be the guy your wife is having a car with? And then the truck and then now the high. Yes. So I mean, it does make sense why police are like, and we're going to move forward with it, even though it's not great. And on Valentine's day, 2022, on Valentine's on Eric and Joyce's fifth wedding anniversary, Eric is arrested and charged with murder. After posting his $1 million bail, Eric's allowed to go home. But he does have to be under house arrest after a prosecutor argues to the judge that his wealth makes him kind of a flight risk still on April 22nd, 2022. He's indicted on charges of second degree murder. Wow. And carrying or using a firearm. So Eric's trial begins in 2023. Okay. I'm going to say that actually you just go. Okay. So I'm just going to lay out quickly what each side presented at trial because there was obviously some stuff that wasn't in the initial investigation. So the defense makes a pretty interesting argument. They point out, hey, John had a quote track record of cheating. Joyce was not the first married woman he had slept with. Also not the first client either. In fact, two other men whose wives had affairs with John were called to the stand. And the defense also pointed out that there were plenty of women that John had dated and then ghosted who could have been angry. They're just pointing out possible motives for other people. There's other husbands who could have been mad. There's other women who could have been mad. And they also claimed John had a bit of a gambling addiction, which might have explained the money and the mask that was found at the crime scene. Perhaps he was planning on paying someone back that day. The defense's point was, listen, there might have been a lot of people who had motive to kill John. But the police zeroed in on Eric because of his truck. And the defense is like they didn't really consider anyone else. But the prosecution brought something else up their sleeve to trial. They had security footage taken from a neighbor's camera pointed at the Thompson's home. Now, if you remember, he has his alibi. It's not like they could really crack him at the dump. But this footage on the night of the murder shows Eric's truck leaving the house at 5.20 p.m. Okay. This is about an hour before John was shot at the clinic. And he returns at 6.48 p.m. Just 30 minutes after the kill. So here's a which doesn't match his original story. And as soon as it starts not matching someone's story, I mean, red flags. He says he didn't come around home till nine. They now have on neighbor's security footage. He is gone from the house in the time window that John has killed. And how in court do all of a sudden go, oh, we'll actually like no. That's not the only thing interesting from that night. A little while later, the same neighbor catches the camera catches a light flickering in the Thompson's backyard. It looks like a fire or a bonfire. And the prosecution is like, why were you lighting a fire late that night where you possibly destroying evidence? Yeah. Well, detectives take the stand and say while they never actually saw evidence of a bonfire in the Thompson's yard, they did find a pot that had char marks on it and a wheelbarrow that was pretty burnt. But the defense obviously has a rebuttal for that. They're like, listen, there was no fire. These were teaky torches in the family's backyard. This is Hawaii, after all, it couldn't have been Eric's truck on the surveillance video because he was on the other side of a wall who getting rid of construction debris that night. Remember, and they reminded the jury the DNA results did not conclusively state. They were a match for Eric. His guns and ammunition did not conclusively match the ones at the crime scene. And there was zero digital evidence at all, which this part I do understand. So let's say we think he we think he did it. If there's any doubt at all that he maybe didn't, should we send him the prison for life? I mean, according to the law, no. Exactly. And so that well, reasonable doubt. Reasonable. Yes. But and that's where things start getting tricky and start getting that's where the gray area is. And I think this is like an interesting point because I think sometimes reasonable reasonable doubt is taken as like if there's any anything at all that says no, but no, we can have some doubt. It's reasonable. Like, okay, but there's another option that's reasonable. It's hard. It really is hard. I mean, again, how it I mean, look at look at crimes today. How many Google searches? How much cell phone history? Correct. His cell phone history doesn't show him going over there. A granted he could have not taken it. But there's so much digital evidence that in a year like this should have been found and there was nothing. Yeah. And that would be hard for me because with how much we use our phones and how much digital evidence there should be if there's nothing, that would make me be like, I don't know. Nothing beforehand either. They couldn't find him looking John up, him looking for the address, him looking for the phone number. Like, there was nothing at all. Or it was done on another phone or something else, right? Which is what the prosecution is saying. He's just good at cleaning up his tracks. Like the reason we don't have the evidence is not because it didn't exist. It's because he was good at murder. But you can't prove that. No, you can't say that. You can't prove that he was a good murderer. Correct. You know what I mean? This is hard. This is tough. Yeah. But you do have the security footage. Mm-hmm. Showing he was gone in the window. Yep. And you do have a possible match for his truck on security. Yeah. That's it though. Like as far as is this possible? Now, Eric's trial resulted in a hungry, they couldn't come to an agreement, which I don't think is that surprising. It's a mistrial and a new court date was set for February 20, 25. There was a big problem going into his second trial. The judge didn't want to allow the police department's DNA analysis of the hat to be brought up into evidence this time in the second trial. And you might be like, well, why? According to a woman named Liz Thompson, who worked with the FBI on cases like this, no relation, by the way, the Honolulu PD's lab wasn't validating their results. Basically, she claimed there's this process of checks and balances to make sure DNA results like can't be replicated. And this wasn't done in this case. So the state technically couldn't use the bucket hat DNA in trial number two, which was one of their strongest, stronger pieces of evidence being like, we couldn't roll them out. He could have easily, this could be his DNA on the hat. I don't think he gets convicted. And I don't know if I think he did it or not. I don't know. The prosecution tries to find a loophole. They get the judge to allow results from a private analyst instead. So not the state, but a hired private analyst. Someone with a company called cyber genetics, who presented their own separate analysis on the bucket hat. And what they found, apparently, was even more convincing than the Honolulu PD's crime labs initial finding. They found that the odds that this DNA came from Eric Thompson were 16.4 trillion times higher than the odds that it came from a random unrelated individual. So basically, they're saying AKA Eric Thompson's head was in that hat. Like that's, that's what the private analysis is saying. The rest of the trial honestly played out similarly to the last one. Like, this was very similar except this part. The jury went to deliberate and not guilty. They're split again. Okay. Judge sends them back. Like, nope, we're not getting this hung jury. Go back and figure it out. You're going to get a verdict. Few of them said it came down to Eric's decision to testify on his own behalf. When he got up and testified in his second trial, they found him hold like a little tense and quote lame, but like low key. If I was being tried for a murder, I didn't commit. I'm not sure I would be very like warm and bubbly on the stand. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. You know, I think I would be defensive as well. I'd be like, no, I didn't do this. But there still seemed to be a lot of reasonable doubt watching the footage over and over. Most of the jurors couldn't even be sure if they were looking at a man or a woman. It was walking in the bucket hat. Let alone whether it's Eric Thompson. But after three days of deliberating alliances started shifting votes started flipping. Yeah. Verticked was met. Eric Thompson was found guilty of second degree. Interesting. Okay. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the murder charge and was given an additional 20 years for the weapons charge. These would run concurrently. He must serve a minimum of 15 years before he's eligible for parole. But I still think there's a lot of questions that linger in this case. Is there more to the story between Eric and John? How many times do we see a love triangle murder that has absolutely zero history between the murder and the victim that we can find. Quincidences and I don't know. I'm glad that I don't know. There's nothing. We don't have anyone from John's family being like, oh yeah, Eric was crazy. He was stalking John. We don't have anyone from Eric's family being like, yeah, he went and found John. I assume he obviously claims his innocence today. Is there anything going on with that? Or really? No. He's just he has 15 years. So the question is, is Eric just that good at covering up his tracks? No digital evidence, very little crime scene evidence, almost no DNA evidence. Had he kept that hat on his head? Would he have gone away with murder? Like, if that private analysis hadn't come through and said no, it's almost. Probably. Pretty sure. Like, if he just hadn't lost the hat on the way out and he is the murderer, would he not have been? I mean, it's a good chance. I think so. And seven months after the affair ended, he kills his wife's affair partner. Did Eric know something that no one else did? Did something go wrong? Did someone get it wrong? What I can say is this in a place known for it's a low-host spirit. You'd expect these answers to come easy, but unfortunately, in this case, pieces of the truth might be lost forever in paradise. And that is the murder of John Tokuhara. It's hard because like, who else would have done it? Like, who else would have done it? I don't know. Right? Like, I mean, I don't know. It sounds like this guy was sleeping with everyone's wives. So maybe someone else would have done it. And like, pissing women off because he did date around. There's a lot of people that would have killed them. And if the gambling debt is true, and the person who showed up was actually just there to collect on a debt and didn't end up taking the money because that's pretty obvious. I mean, do I think he probably did it? Yes. Is there a chance he didn't do it? Also, yes. So I don't know how I feel. I also don't love the idea that like, the first trial was a hung jury, the second trial was a hung jury, and they made it go make it. Yeah, I don't like that. Yeah. So judges allowed to do that. He's allowed to put your life in all of these random strangers hands. And I think for me, like the fact that jury came out afterwards and openly said, I didn't vote that way first. But after being forced to sit there for three days and worse to come to an agreement, I switched my vote. That feels weird. I agree. I don't know. All right, you guys. That was our episode for today. And we will see you next time with another one. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.