After three days of deliberation, a six-man, six-woman jury could not come to a unanimous decision in the murder trial of a 36-year-old man accused of shooting Jon Tokuhara, his wife’s ex-lover and acupuncturist who treated her for infertility and aided the couple in conceiving a child.

Circuit Judge Paul Wong declared a mistrial late Wednesday afternoon, thanked the jurors for their work and set Eric Thompson’s new trial for Oct. 16.

Thompson declined comment after leaving the courtroom holding hands with his wife, Joyce Thompson, who asserted spousal privilege and declined to testify in the case.

Outside the courthouse, Tokuhara’s 81-year-old mother leaned her head against a wall, sobbing. Lilly Tokuhara testified at trial that she discovered her son’s body Jan. 13, 2022, in a pool of blood on the floor of his Waipahu office. She said he texted her that he would come over to her house the night before to pick up dinner, but he never did.

Tokuhara’s friends and family declined comment, but were clearly upset by the hung jury, many tearful.

Tokuhara was killed Jan. 12, 2022, two days before the Thompson’s fifth wedding anniversary and 11 days after Eric Thompson made his wife sign an agreement relinquishing custody of their 3-year-old daughter should they divorce.

Tokuhara, a 47-year-old acupuncturist, was struck in the face and head with four .22-caliber bullets from a single firearm, but not from one of two .22-caliber rifles recovered by police at the Thompson residence, nor did the brands of the spent cartridges recovered at the scene of the shooting match the brands of the 1,774 cartridges found in several boxes at Thompson’s home.

Unbeknownst to jurors, police recovered a total of 14 firearms from his Wailupe house, 12 registered to Thompson and two unregistered in the state. The state was precluded from presenting all 14 firearms as evidence, but deputy prosecutor Benjamin Rose told jurors Thompson was a skilled marksman who went to the gun range regularly with .22-caliber ammunition and knows how to shoot to kill.

Rose said outside the courtroom he was appreciative of the jury’s service.

Thompson’s defense attorney, David Hayakawa, said: “The pretrial impressions created by the press releases from the prosecutor to the state as a whole, not to the jurors, left a very misleading impression. We’re happy that the jury was able to see the actual evidence right up on the witness stand.”

The jury sat through days of evidence, heard testimony and cross-­examination of numerous witnesses, including experts, and listened to opening and closing arguments of the attorneys.

Early on in the investigation, police looked at Tokuhara’s cellphone, and discovered someone with a motive: Eric Thompson.

Tokuhara had shared 5,610 Instagram direct messages from June 27, 2021, to July 3, 2021, with an Instagram user identified as “Little Squeeze Me.” A detective testified he found that that person was Joyce Thompson, and that her husband, Eric, had learned of their affair.

Tokuhara’s last outgoing message was at 6:12 p.m. on Jan. 12, 2022. Prosecutors said he was killed between 6:12 p.m. and 6:20 p.m.

Police had also obtained video surveillance from nearby businesses, and saw that a white four-door Chevrolet Silverado of a model year from 2014 to 2016 was in the area at that time.

Police pieced together video surveillance footage from businesses near the area of Tokuhara’s office and Thompson’s neighbor’s home. The surveillance cameras caught a man wearing a bucket hat, face mask and carrying a large brown paper bag walking into the clinic and out in 48 seconds. The hat fell off and was later recovered with DNA linking Thompson to the hat.

A white four-door Chevrolet Silverado work truck was seen leaving the area of the clinic at about the time the person wearing the bucket hat was seen leaving the scene of the crime.

Police tied Thompson to the crime scene because he owns such a 2014 Silverado.

Police had run a check of Silverados, and narrowed it down to 53 registered Silverados that matched the description of being a basic work truck with a black grill and basic rims, and the only owner who could be associated with Tokuhara was Thompson. An expert testified the Thompson truck and the ones in the Waipahu videos had a running board.

Thompson himself took the stand, denied shooting Tokuhara and provided an alibi. He said he went to the Waimanalo Convenience Center where he dumped bags of bricks. He then came home at 6:48 p.m., took a shower, then ate dinner and played with his daughter outside in the yard.

He then said he went to Longs Drugs at about 9:54 p.m. in Hawaii Kai where he bought eggs, beer and milk and paid cash.

Thompson testified how he and Joyce were high school sweethearts at Kalani High School, where they were a year apart. He said that Tokuhara helped his wife calm down and work through the stress of getting pregnant.

He became suspicious of Tokuhara when she asked him to watch their daughter while she said she was out with family friends, who she said were in town. He also caught her on the home security system going out at night without telling him while he was away on business.

Thompson said he would never have suspected Tokuhara, who helped them through the pregnancy.

After his wife admitted the affair, he said he was angry with Tokuhara but never talked to him. He said he and his wife were focused on reconciliation.

He also admitted to banning his wife’s sister from coming around the couple’s daughter because he believed she helped cover up the affair.

Hayakawa, the defense attorney, accused police of failing to rule out other potential suspects, including any of a number of Tokuhara’s ex-girlfriends’ husbands or boyfriends.

He grilled the ex-­boyfriend of Tokuhara’s then-girlfriend, and said it seemed unusual that he had deleted messages from his cellphone, then purchased a new one, knowing that police wanted to examine his phone.

He alleged surveillance footage was questionable, and said police work was shoddy in recovering DNA from a hat and said prosecutors built their case on cherry-picked evidence.

The state also pointed to video evidence of a large glowing fire the night of the murder, alleging that Thompson burned evidence in a metal pot.

Thompson denied that, and said that the glow was from tiki torches he turned on before playing with his daughter outside, and that the pot was used to degrease metal brackets.

After declaring a mistrial, the judge said Thompson would be allowed to have his truck back.