Teenager accused of killing 2, including popular Puyallup market owner, goes on trial
Robbrie Thompson was 16 when he was accused of fatally shooting a 79-year-old shop owner during a robbery in Puyallup, then killing his friend over a fear that he’d snitch. Now, Thompson is an adult and standing trial.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys made opening statements Wednesday, laying out their cases for jurors who will decide if Thompson is guilty of two counts of aggravated first-degree murder, first-degree murder, first-degree robbery, first-degree conspiracy to commit robbery, two counts of second-degree assault and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
“This is a case about connections,” deputy prosecutor Brian Wasankari said in Pierce County Superior Court. “The often invisible connections that bind us all.”
Wasankari talked about the people whose lives changed in April 2019, allegedly because of Thompson.
There was Soon Ja Nam, who immigrated from Korea and operated the Handy Corner Market with her husband of 56 years. She died after being shot in the back during a robbery on April 27, 2019 in a crime that shocked the community. Hundreds left cards and flowers at the market in the days after the shooting.
Then there was 16-year-old Franklin Thuo, whose parents immigrated with him from Kenya, and who died days later after being shot in the back of the head near Chinook Marina in Tacoma.
Prosecutors say both were killed by bullets from the same pistol.
Wasankari spent the better part of an hour laying out the evidence for jurors and offering a play-by-play of Thompson’s whereabouts leading up to the robbery homicide and in the days after. Surveillance video, cell phone coordinates, text messages, social media and internet searches are expected to be presented at trial, as well as a .357 pistol magazine and .380 shell casing found on the floor of the market where Nam was killed. Prosecutors say Thompson admitted to owning both types of pistols.
Defense attorney Paula T. Olson kept her opening statement brief, saying there are “huge holes in the state’s evidence” and arguing Thuo killed Nam rather than Thompson.
On the day of the robbery, Thuo left his house after attending church with his family. He then picked up Thompson, who allegedly got in the Nissan Sentra carrying two pistols and wearing blue rubber gloves.
Thompson told detectives “the plan was to rob a corner store in Puyallup but he told police that he backed out, that he changed his mind, that he never even made it to Puyallup,” Wasankari told the court. “The evidence is going to show something different.”
He pointed to a text from Thompson to his girlfriend saying he was on his way to Puyallup, surveillance video showing the Nissan near the market, witnesses who identified Thompson and Thuo, and a Snapchat video showing Thompson holding two guns and the teens “preparing for the robbery that they executed just six minutes later.”
Thuo allegedly waited in the Nissan, which was backed up to the front of the store for an easy getaway. Thompson allegedly went inside and demanded money from Nam, who was working the front counter.
Nam’s husband heard her scream for help just before Nam walked into the couple’s kitchen with the robber behind her, a gun pointed in her direction.
“That man then shot Mrs. Nam in the back while her husband watched,” Wasankari said. “She said, ‘Open the cash register,’ and that’s the last thing she said.”
Nam died at Tacoma General Hospital.
Her husband, Joseph, said he has contemplated suicide because he wants to be with her so badly.
“This unbearable loneliness and sorrow are persistent, the pain does not go away from my mind,” Joseph Nam wrote in a victim impact statement.
After the robbery, prosecutors say Thompson texted friends saying the “craziest (expletive) just happened” and searched news sites for “Puyallup shooting.”
While Thuo was at the library the next day, a neighbor spotted the Nissan Sentra featured in a sheriff’s bulletin and called 911. Deputies impounded the vehicle and found $217 in cash and masks, records say.
Thompson allegedly found out and expressed concern to his girlfriend that the teens would be caught.
He was “worried that Franklin might confess and if he did that, he was going to give up the defendant,” Wasankari said in court.
Text messages from Thompson’s girlfriend that night urged him not to do anything stupid. Thompson did an Internet search for “where is the best place to shoot someone” before turning off his cell phone for about 90 minutes, prosecutors say.
The next morning, Puyallup Tribal Police found Thuo’s body near Chinook Marina. He was missing his white Adidas Yeezy sneakers, which are retailed for $360.
Thompson was seen modeling white Adidas Yeezys for sale on Snapchat after Thuo’s death, Wasankari said.
He was arrested May 1 while walking to school. Deputies who searched his Tacoma home said they found blue gloves similar to those worn by the robber and a .357-caliber pistol, without a magazine.
Defense attorneys said the deaths of Nam and Thuo were tragedies and the “the state is wanting to put the entire responsibility for those losses on Rob Thompson,” even though he was not to blame.
Olson challenged the idea that cell phone triangulation is precise enough to show somebody’s exact location and pointed out there are no witnesses to Thuo’s death.
She also said the COVID-19 pandemic might have affected people’s memories and could affect their testimony.
“Who saw what is really going to be a critical issue here,” Olson said.
The trial is expected to resume Thursday.
