Posted on: Wednesday, November 5, 2003

Killer's attorney walks out

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

A city deputy prosecutor asked the Hawai'i Paroling Authority yesterday to set a minimum prison term of 150 years for a Kailua man who was convicted earlier this year of murdering two people in January 2002.

Although Circuit Judge Karen Ahn had sentenced Jason Perry, 25, to consecutive terms of life in prison without parole, Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Van Marter said the state Department of Public Safety is required to send a recommendation to the governor — after Perry serves 20 years — on whether to commute the sentence to life with the possibility of parole. If the sentence were to be commuted, the parole board would be responsible for setting a minimum prison term for him, Van Marter said.

Perry was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder for strangling Tracey Tominaga, 37, in the mountains above Makakilo on Jan. 21, 2002, and shooting Edward Fuller, 40, at point-blank range four days later to keep him from going to police with information about Tominaga's death.

According to information that surfaced at trial, Perry had been supplying Tominaga with crystal methamphetamine.

Perry's attorney, David Bettencourt, asked that yesterday's minimum-term hearing be postponed and abruptly left the meeting after his request was denied, saying he did not have adequate time to respond to a letter that Van Marter sent the parole board.

Tominaga's parents, Betty and Donald Tominaga, and her brother, Richard Tominaga, attended the hearing. Betty Tominaga read a brief statement calling her daughter's death "a senseless act."

"I hope that time spent behind bars would make you realize the pain and sorrow that you caused your family as well as our family," Tominaga said in reference to Perry.

The board is expected to reconvene the hearing in about two months.