Attorney David Bettencourt, who represents murder defendant Jason Perry, said in his opening statement that evidence will show that Perry wanted to scare Tracey Tominaga for stealing his drugs three days earlier, but never intended to kill her.

While Ryan Onuma will be called to testify by the prosecution about what happened on Jan. 21, 2002, in the backyard of a cabin at the end of Palehua Road, the jury should discount what Onuma says because he has cut a "sweetheart deal" with prosecutors, Bettencourt said.

And it was Onuma, not Perry, who shot a man named Edward Fuller on Jack Lane in Nu'uanu five days after Tominaga was murdered to keep Fuller from telling police what he knew about Tominaga's death, Bettencourt said.

The rare double-murder trial began in Circuit Judge Karen Ahn's courtroom with city Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Van Marter telling the jury in his opening statement that Perry committed "two cold-blooded murders" within a week's time in January 2002.

Perry is on trial on charges of murdering both Tominaga and Fuller.

Perry strangled Tominaga, 37, at the Palehua site to retaliate against her for conspiring with a friend to rob Perry of crystal methamphetamine and cash at gunpoint three days earlier at Tominaga's home on Brokaw Street in Kapahulu, Van Marter said.

A few days after Tominaga was killed, Perry "bragged" about the killing to Fuller, whom he had only recently met, and then learned that Fuller was a suspected police informant, Van Marter said.

Van Marter said Perry fired five bullets from a .380-caliber, semi-automatic pistol into Fuller within an hour of learning from a woman to whom Perry sold methamphetamine that Fuller was a suspected police "snitch" who could not be trusted.

He said problems between Perry and Tominaga began Jan. 18, 2002 when Tominaga asked Perry to bring some crystal methamphetamine or "ice" to her home to buy.

When he got there, Perry was confronted by Tominaga's friend, Kaimi Seu, who held a shotgun within inches of Perry's face and told him to stop trying to establish a sexual relationship with Tominaga, Van Marter said.

He said things cooled down, and by the time Perry left, he had apologized, the gun had been put away and Seu and Tominaga thought the problem was resolved.

But as soon as Perry arrived at the Waikiki hotel room where he was staying with Onuma, Perry complained bitterly about being ripped off and swore revenge upon Tominaga and the man who pointed the shotgun at him, Van Marter said.

He said Perry carried out the revenge plan when they found Tominaga at home the following Monday and lured her under false pretenses to the site where she was killed.

But Bettencourt told jurors that there is no way to corroborate what Seu says about Perry "coming on to" Tominaga. That is likely a concocted story to cover up what was simply a drugs and cash "ripoff" of Perry by Tominaga and Seu, Bettencourt said.

"This entire case is built on a house of cards," Bettencourt said.

Four of the five men who were charged in the case, including Onuma and drug supplier Delaneo Puha, have already signed plea agreements with the prosecutor's office, Bettencourt said, but only Perry was charged with murder.

The trial is expected to last two to three weeks and Perry is likely to take the stand in his own defense, Bettencourt said.