Chinatown acid attack suspect Marquis Johnson charged with assault

Yahoo

8 hours ago

Prosecutors charged Marquis Johnson with first-­degree assault in the Aug. 8 Chinatown acid attack on a 30-year-old cook, who sustained severe injuries.
The 34-year-old was charged at 4 :35 p.m.
Tuesday, just under the wire of the 48-hour charging deadline. Had they not met the deadline, police would have had to release Johnson.
Johnson's bail was set at $500, 000.
First-degree assault is a Class B felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $25, 000 fine.
Johnson likely will make his initial court appearance in Honolulu District Court this morning.
Johnson surrendered at the main police station at 5 :35 p.m. Sunday after police named him Thursday and provided a photograph to the public, naming him as the Aug. 8 acid attack suspect.
Johnson's arrest shocked friends, who described him as a kind, sweet person who danced ballet and flamenco.
They had hoped it was a case of mistaken identity, which had occurred before. Johnson was wrongly arrested in 2022 while he was walking along a Waikiki street around midnight on Aug. 22, 2020, where two car theft suspects, who also were Black men, had been in the area. In the complaint, Johnson said he was told to lie prone on the ground, and handcuffed, in a case of mistaken identity, and that one officer used excessive force. The case was recently settled in federal court.
In the Aug. 8 attack, police said the suspect approached the victim on the sidewalk, asked him a few questions, then suddenly threw sulfuric acid on the victim.
The victim told police he did not know his assailant, police Lt. Deena Thoemmes said.
The incident occurred at the corner of North Hotel and Smith streets.
An employee of Lucky Belly, a restaurant at that intersection, said the victim, a cook, had come from Livestock Tavern to get some food items from Lucky Belly, which has the same owners. He said the attack occurred just outside Lucky Belly's kitchen after the cook left to return to Livestock Tavern.
Police said the acid attack victim returned to his workplace, where co-workers aided him and called 911.
A witness provided a description that resulted in a police sketch of a man wearing a do-rag head covering and glasses. Police said the assailant had a camera around his neck and was carrying a red or maroon water bottle. That description was initially shared with the public Aug. 13, five days after the attack.
Police also provided images from surveillance video of the suspect, wearing a blue hooded shirt, walking across the street.
The acid attack has similarities to two previous attacks, which were related to each other.
The first was allegedly carried out by Paul Cameron in 2023 at a Mililani fitness center against a young woman he knew.
Cameron also was charged in the second attack as an accomplice in attempted murder in an apparently random attack against a Chinese language teacher. The second attack was allegedly part of a murder-­for-hire plot by Cameron to divert attention from him as a possible suspect in the first case. The man facing trial in the second attack is Sebastian Mahkwan, who Cameron allegedly enlisted while they were in jail.