Jury deliberations start in Michael Hirokawa case

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Prosecutors said Michael Hirokawa got someone to plant evidence to show he was drugged. While his attorney said it would have been impossible to do that, closing arguments were held on Thursday, May 25, with the case now in the hands of the jury.

Prosecutor Michelle Puu once again went into detail of the brutality of how the woman was raped and beaten and lost so much blood; she would have died if she hadn’t escaped Hirokawa’s apartment three years ago.

She described Hirokawa as entitled and said he got angry when the victim rejected him.

“That made him more mad. She had the nerve to fight back. She had the nerve to scratch and claw and fight and resist,” said Puu.

His attorney said he was drugged when he drank the wine in his apartment with the sleep aid Ambien and LSD. And he didn’t remember attacking her. Puu said the defense is using that as an easy out.

“Because he doesn’t want to have to explain this, easy to say I don’t remember,” said Puu.

Puu said Hirokawa or one of his friends could have gone into the apartment after the incident to plant the drugs as evidence. Defense attorney Alen Kaneshiro said it wouldn’t have been possible to plant that evidence when no one knew which glass to put the evidence in.

“How is someone going to plant something if they don’t even know which glass is Mr. Hirokawa’s?” said Kaneshiro.

Kaneshiro adds that it didn’t make sense for Hirokawa to commit the crime and then just fall asleep.

“You don’t consciously commit this crime and go to sleep without any attempt to clean yourself up, clean up the crime scene. There’s no attempt to conceal anything,” said Kaneshiro.

Jury deliberations will continue on Friday, May 26.