SEATTLE — Deliberations in the trial for a shooting at the University of Washington on Inauguration Day in 2017 have begun anew after a juror was replaced.
The jury started deliberating last week but an alternate juror was brought in Wednesday morning to replace a juror who was excused for medical reasons, a courtroom bailiff told KIRO 7.
They’ll decide if Elizabeth Hokoana is guilty of first-degree assault for shooting Antifa protester Joshua Dukes. They’re also deciding if her husband, Marc Hokoana, is guilty of third-degree assault for spraying pepper spray at the crowd.
Elizabeth Hokoana, who is on trial, told the jury she shot antifa protester Joshua Dukes to protect her husband, Mark Hokoana.
She said Dukes grabbed her husband and was trying to pull him back into the crowd of antifa protesters who gathered in Red Square. The Hokoanas were lined up to see far-right speaker Milo Yiannoupolis, in Kane Hall.
She said she pulled her pistol when Dukes grabbed her husband, and and then she said she saw Dukes had a knife. “He was going to gut my husband,” said Elizabeth Hokoana in court on Wednesday. "I knew if I didn’t do something it would be my husband who was on the ground. It would be my husband who I would never get to say goodnight to again.”
The prosecution says Elizabeth Hokoana only claimed Dukes had a knife after it was revealed months later, during discovery, that Dukes had two knives with him at the time he was shot.
Elizabeth Hokoana, who also goes by Lily, told the jury she started carrying a pistol after witnessing a shooting in North Seattle in 2015. “I decided to carry every day because I realized crime could happen to me," she said. She testified she didn’t realize she was not allowed to carry her pistol on campus at the University of Washington.
Dukes was critically injured in the shooting. He chose not to cooperate with prosecutors, and did not testify in the trial.
Elizabeth Hokoana is charged with assault in the first degree with a firearm enhancement. If convicted she could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. Mark Hokoana is charged with assault in the third degree for firing pepper spray into the crowd.
The prosecution questioned why Elizabeth Hokoana pulled her pistol before she says she saw that Dukes had a knife. She said she already felt she and her husband were in danger.
The prosecutor focused on Elizabeth Hokoana’s knowledge of firearm laws, but noted that she was unaware it was illegal to carry a concealed weapon on campus at UW in January 2017.
Elizabeth Hokoana said she had to shoot Dukes to save her husband.
“I have nightmares. I have nightmares I wasn’t fast enough and I have nightmares my gun jammed. I have nightmares that I didn’t have my gun at all and I couldn’t do anything to save Marc-y,” she said.
Closing arguments in the UW Shooting trial wrapped up on Thursday afternoon. Now it is up to the jury to determine if Marc and Elizabeth Hokoana went to Red Square with plans to provoke violence or acted in self-defense.
KIRO 7 reporter Gary Horcher was there when the shooting happened on Jan. 20, 2017.
See previous coverage of the case – including his coverage from the night it happened in 2017 – below.
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