A Juneau jury has returned with a verdict in favor of the defendants, the City of Hoonah, in a wrongful death lawsuit stemming from the murder of two police officers.
The seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated for about 6 hours between Friday and today. They considered whether to award damages to Haley Tokuoka-Yearout and Matthew Tokuoka’s four children. Tokuoka-Yearout’s attorneys alleged that Tony Wallace’s training and conduct provoked John N. Marvin Jr. into shooting both officers in August 2010. Wallace was on duty at the time while Tokuoka was not.
Jurors had a long, special verdict form to fill out in the course of their deliberations. The first question was, did “the shooting of Tokuoka arise out of and in the course of his employment as a police officer?” Jurors answered “yes,” and they were finished with the case.
They did not advance to seven other questions about the shining of Wallace’s flashlight as an investigative act or whether it was an act of negligence, or what monetary damages to award to Tokuoka-Yearout and Tokuoka’s children.
The trial started March 31 in the civil case.
Marvin was convicted of two counts of murder and later sentenced to 198 years in prison for the crime.
