Wednesday, October 14, 1998
What ever happened to the young Fuller Brush salesman from the Big Island who strangled a mother of two children (who was his co-worker) about 40 years ago in Wahiawa? I thought he went to jail but I'm not too sure. Salesman-killer
paroled in ’65Door-to-door Fuller Brush salesman Rodney Isamu Yamamoto was sentenced to a maximum 30-year prison term -- but actually served less than half that time -- for second-degree murder for strangling Tomiko E. Tobita in her Wahiawa home on May 12, 1958.
Yamamoto, born and raised in Hilo but living in a Manoa boardinghouse at the time, first met Tobita, 32, the previous February when the Fuller Brush agency also hired her. Tobita was married to a Wahiawa sportsman; the couple had two children.
Yamamoto confessed. The motive was robbery. Police at the time said that his sales were low and he was in need of money.
Police charged Yamamoto, 18 at the time, with first-degree murder, but he later pleaded no contest to the lesser second-degree murder charge.
A Circuit Court judge sentenced Yamamoto to a maximum 30-year prison term. The parole board set a 15-year minimum term.
Hawaii Paroling Authority records indicate that Yamamoto was paroled to an undisclosed address in Hawaii on Sept. 16, 1965, and was discharged from parole on Feb. 28, 1972, because he had a job, a stable home life and no contact with the law.
By Crystal Kua, Star-Bulletin
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