On the night of August 28, 2010, in Hoonah, Alaska, a white male, 32-year-old Anthony Wallace—then a Hoonah Police Department sergeant—was shot in what city officials described as an ambush on Hoonah's Front Street. The gunfire erupted as Sgt. Wallace and fellow officer Matthew Tokuoka were near their families; witnesses included Wallace's visiting mother and Tokuoka's wife and two young children. Both officers were mortally wounded, and the town of roughly 800 people reeled as word spread that two of its four officers had been gunned down. Sgt. Wallace, 32, later died during surgery in Juneau, while Officer Tokuoka succumbed to his wounds at the local clinic.
Through the night and into the next day, the suspect—identified by authorities as 45-year-old Hoonah resident John N. Marvin Jr.—barricaded himself inside his home, triggering a large-scale response that brought in Alaska State Troopers, a SWAT team, and officers ferried in by boat from Juneau. After more than a day under siege, Marvin emerged and surrendered on the morning of Monday, August 30. He was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Sgt. Wallace and Officer Tokuoka.
In the months and years that followed, the investigation and prosecution detailed how the shooting unfolded and why the penalties would differ for each count. Jurors later found that Sgt. Wallace was in uniform and on duty when he was killed, a determination that mandated a 99-year term on that count under Alaska law; questions about whether Officer Tokuoka was readily identifiable as an officer at the moment he was shot shaped the sentencing range for the second count. The case moved steadily toward trial while Hoonah held public remembrances and the officers' remains were escorted home by mourners for a community memorial.
A Juneau jury convicted John N. Marvin Jr. of two counts of first-degree murder on November 5, 2012. On April 5, 2013, Superior Court Judge David George sentenced Marvin to consecutive terms that totaled 198 years—99 years for the murder of Sgt. Anthony Wallace and the maximum 99 years for the murder of Officer Matthew Tokuoka. The judge called Marvin “a dangerous individual,” ordered the terms served back-to-back, and the sentence ensured he would spend the rest of his life in prison.
