‘She will testify that if she didn’t pull that trigger, her husband would be gutted…’
Mike Carter, The Seattle Times
A jury will be asked to decide whether the Inauguration Day 2017 shooting of an anti-fascist demonstrator during violent protests on the University of Washington campus was righteous or reckless.
In opening statements in the assault trial for Marc and Elizabeth Hokoana on Wednesday in King County Superior Court, prosecutors painted the conservative Seattle couple as provocateurs who used the appearance of alt-right polemicist Milo Yiannopoulos at Kane Hall as an excuse to clash with “snowflakes” upset over the election of President Donald Trump, showing up armed and intent on conflict.
“Violence is exactly what Marc and Elizabeth Hokoana planned for and expected,” Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Raam Wong told the nine-woman, five-man panel [two are alternates]. “Red Square was a tinder box, and the Hokoanas were intent on lighting the match.”
The defense argued that the couple, both 31, were swept up in an escalating storm of violence and that they resorted to lawful force—the use of pepper spray and a 9 mm handgun—to protect themselves and others when police failed to act as the protest spun out of control.
Elizabeth Hokoana, who defense attorney Steven Wells said routinely carried a handgun for self-defense and was licensed and trained in its use, will testify that she shot 35-year-old avowed anarchist Joshua Phelan Dukes, who was armed with a knife, at point-blank range when he grabbed her husband.
One person the jury won’t hear from is the victim—Dukes, through an attorney, has said he does not trust the criminal-justice system and won’t lend his testimony to a trial he doesn’t believe in.
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Originally Posted by Rutabaga
