KEALAKEKUA — A jury on Thursday found a Kapaau man not guilty of two counts of first-degree attempted murder, the most serious charges filed in connection with a nearly 20-hour standoff in July 2015 in which the man’s girlfriend and a police officer were shot.
Macdon “Donny” Thromman, 39, will be sentenced in April by Kona Circuit Court Judge Ronald Ibarra after the 12-member jury found him guilty of attempted second-degree murder for shooting Hawaii Police Department Officer Ray Fukada; first-degree assault for the shooting and injuring of his girlfriend, Heather Coito; kidnapping; second-degree reckless endangering; failure to have permits to acquire a firearm; and four counts of first-degree terroristic threatening, two of which were filed for threatening Heather’s parents and two for threatening Officer Dale Ku and Sgt. Paul Kim.
Thromman, who stood stoically as the verdicts were read, one by one, was found not guilty of two counts first-degree attempted murder; one for shooting Fukada in the line of duty and the other filed after a bullet struck a police Bearcat from which Kim was deploying pepper spray-like oleoresin capsicum canisters. Jurors also found Thromman not guilty of second-degree attempted murder for shooting at Kim.
The jury of eight men and four women took nearly two days to render the verdict around 3 p.m. Thursday after getting the case around 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday after Thromman’s attorney, Terri Fujioka-Lilley, wrapped up her closing arguments and prosecutors completed their rebuttal. The trial commenced Jan. 17.
For full details, see the Friday edition of West Hawaii Today.