Man convicted in Fujita murders is stabbed to death at Halawa

A Japanese national convicted in the 1994 shooting deaths of a psychic and her son was allegedly stabbed to death in the Halawa Correctional Facility early Monday morning by his 38-year-old cellmate.

Raita Fuku­saku Opens in a new tab, 59, was convicted in 1995 of shooting Opens in a new tab and killing well-known Japa­nese fortuneteller Toako “Koto­tome” Fujita and her son Goro. Fukusaku was the first Japanese citizen to be extradited to stand trial for murder in the United States.

Toako Fuita, 56 at the time of her death, was a famous psychic in Japan whose clients included prime ministers and corporate leaders.

A little after 1:30 a.m. Monday, Honolulu police officers responded to Halawa Correctional Facility for an unattended death.

Officers were told that at about 11:30 p.m. Fukusaku “was found with fatal injuries and weapon was recovered nearby,” according to an HPD highlight.

“EMS was activated and the pronouncement of death was made. It was determined that the victim had been assaulted and stabbed by his cellmate, a 38-year-old male,” read the police highlight.

The state Department of Law Enforcement is handling the investigation after HPD’s Criminal Investigation Division-Homicide Detail, along with the Scientific Investigative Section, assisted with the on-scene initial investigation.

The DLE investigates crimes that occur on state property, including Hawaii’s correctional facilities.

“DLE is investigating the death of an inmate at Ha­lawa Correctional Facility on October 14,” read a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser from a department spokesperson. “This is an ongoing investigation. DLE is not releasing additional information at this time.”

No arrests have been made.

Staff at the Halawa Correctional Facility found Fukusaku in his cell on the floor bleeding, with “trauma to his head and neck,” according to a statement to the Star-Advertiser from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“Staff immediately called 911 and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation until Emergency Medical Services arrived and took over to no avail. EMS personnel pronounced the inmate dead,” read the statement. “His cellmate was immediately removed from their cell and placed in a holding unit.”

The cause of death is pending determination by the city Department of the Medical Examiner.

“The DCR will not be commenting further at this time due to the pending investigation,” according to the statement.

A state jury in 1995 found Fuku­saku guilty of murder in the shooting deaths of the Fuji­tas.

Honolulu firefighters found Toako Fujita’s body in the closet of her penthouse apartment at 1350 Ala Moana Blvd. on Feb. 23, 1994, with a gunshot wound to her chest, after someone started a fire in the apartment. Later that day, firefighters found Goro Fujita’s body, with a gunshot wound to the chest, in his car in the parking lot of the Park Shore Hotel in Waikiki after the car had been set on fire.

Fukusaku claimed that members of the “yakuza,” the Japa­nese crime syndicate, were behind the killings and that he was an accomplice, not the shooter.

The Japa­nese organized crime syndicate killed Fujita and her son Goro so that Goro, the illegitimate son of a prominent Japa­nese businessman, would not inherit any of the businessman’s money, Fukusaku and his attorneys maintained.

His lawyers admitted Fukusaku helped dispose of a body in the Fujita killings but that it was under threat of death. Prosecutors said he killed the Fujitas after he fell into debt and failed in an attempt to extort $20,000 from them.

The mother and son were both shot once through the heart with a gun Fukusaku later tried to pawn.