The 23-year-old Waikiki man sentenced to a decade in federal prison Thursday turned to drug dealing at the age of 15 to fund a daily habit. This started the life that led to the fatal fentanyl overdose of an 18-year-old U.S. Marine in November 2021.
Justin Hiroki Wu was originally accused of making numerous illegal drug sales to active duty military personnel stationed in Hawaii. The Marine who died Nov. 13, 2021, was Lance Cpl. Alexander Grafton, a Hawaii-based Marine with the 3rd Marine Division.
Grafton’s death was one of 48 fentanyl-related deaths in Hawaii in 2021, according to the Hawaii High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.
That number rose to 79 in 2022 and 107 in 2023.
Grafton was discovered “deceased and badly decomposed” in his barracks room by a few of his friends and fellow Marines, according to federal court records.
When he sold the fatal dose to Grafton, Wu was on federal probation for a previous drug conviction when he was 18 years old.
In that case, Wu was charged with selling cocaine and protecting his business with a.40 caliber handgun. Wu also got caught trying to sneak perjured testimony into the record to help his case, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
In a sentencing memorandum his attorney, Doris Lum, told U.S. District Judge Judge Shanlyn A. S. Park’s court that Wu is the product of a single mother and a father who struggled with methamphetamine addiction.
Wu was using cannabis or cocaine daily by the age of 15 and started marketing illegal narcotics to feed his habit.
Lum cast doubt on Wu being the source of Grafton’s fatal overdose “given Justin’s own words and the fact that he uses the very drugs he distributes to others.”
“In messages with a friend, Justin talks about how stupid it is to cut drugs with fentanyl because it kills people. In this same message thread, Justin admits cutting drugs, but with creatine workout powder, not with fentanyl,” wrote Lum.
At 15, Wu would use the profit from his drug dealing to buy more drugs to use and he dropped out of school.
“This vicious cycle did not end after Justin was sentenced for his first drug charge,” wrote Lum. “Yes, Justin continued down a path of addiction and its vicious cycle, even after being on federal probation. However strong Justin’s addiction was, it did not come at the expense of selling fentanyl to others. Especially since Justin was one of his own customers.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael F. Albanese, in a sentencing memo to Park’s court, noted investigators found evidence that Wu was selling drugs two months after he was sentenced to home detention and location monitoring in a May 2021 case.
“To date, Wu has expressed no contrition, no remorse, and no acknowledgement that his pills caused—or even could have caused (Grafton’s ) death. Until the moment he entered a plea agreement, Wu was looking for ways to obstruct his criminal trial by almost tricking his own attorney into introducing perjured testimony,” wrote Albanese. “He has given this Court no reason to believe he wants rehabilitation; no reason to believe that, within months of his release from whatever sentence the Court imposes, he won’t go right back to selling drugs in the community.”
Albanese and Jonathan D. Slack prosecuted the case.
Wu was first charged by criminal complaint Jan. 13, 2023, with one count of distribution of fentanyl resulting in death and one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine.
Wu entered into a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice on Feb. 4 to plead guilty to two counts related to cocaine possession and selling cocaine. Wu also agreed that he would be sentenced to between seven and 10 years in federal prison.
According to the Jan. 13, 2023, criminal complaint, investigators with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Honolulu Police Department allegedly found “numerous messages with multiple individuals discussing drug transactions for cocaine, MDMA (ecstasy ), and oxycodone.”
“A number of these individuals messaging Wu for drug transactions were active duty military personnel,” according to the complaint.
Wu used Cash App and Venmo to move money and that transactions labeled “food ” were actually drug sales.
Federal agents conducted “multiple interviews of military personnel who purchased drugs from Wu,” including at least one person expelled from the Marine Corps for testing positive for fentanyl.
On Sept. 10, 2021, investigators responded to an overdose at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, where Grafton had been found unresponsive, given CPR, then taken to a hospital.
During a search of Grafton’s barracks, Marine investigators found one blue pill stamped “M-30 ” and a second crushed-up blue pill in a transparent plastic bag that later tested positive as fentanyl.
Grafton’s medical records from Sept. 13, 2021, indicate he told Marine medical personnel he had an accidental overdose on Sept. 10, 2021, after buying two Percocet pills “off the street ” and “snorted 1 /2 tablet.”
Grafton said the overdose was “unintentional ” and that he was “just being careless and was trying to have fun.”
On Nov. 13, 2021, Grafton was found dead in his barracks on Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
An autopsy and toxicology report determined the cause of death was “fentanyl toxicity” but it was unknown when he died.
At the scene, his cellphone and a small plastic bag containing a blue, crystalline substance that tested positive as fentanyl were recovered. Investigators with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service reviewed Grafton’s phone and interviewed his friends and associates.
A review of Grafton’s phone revealed “multiple conversations with individuals on the social media application Snapchat ” about buying and using cocaine, cannabis, oxycodone, Percocet and psilocybin mushrooms.
The Snapchat conversations about the sale of illegal drugs continued up to Nov. 9, 2021, the day before he died of a fentanyl overdose.
“Based on the messages between ‘jay_hnl’ and (the victim ), the CID investigation, and the medical records,” the DEA agent wrote that both the overdose on Sept. 10, 2021, and the fatal overdose on Nov. 10, 2021, were the result of counterfeit Percocet, also known as oxycodone M-30 pills, bought from “jay_hnl,” according to the criminal complaint.
Federal investigators gathered evidence from two other U.S. Marines who admitted they bought drugs, sometimes in bulk, from Wu. The Marines said they went to Wu’s Waikiki apartment.
One of the Marines helped federal investigators set up an undercover drug buy from Wu, on June 29, 2022.
Wu was arrested at about 2 :35 p.m. that day when he was seen by federal agents getting into a car registered to his mom. Agents found a scale with cocaine residue and about 188 grams of cocaine in the trunk.
A search of Wu’s apartment turned up cannabis, multiple bottles of prescription codeine, psilocybin mushrooms and cocaine.
In a safe in Wu’s room, federal agents found $34, 248 in cash and 780, 000 in Japanese yen, or about $5, 228.
HOW TO GET HELP—The Substance Abuse Counseling Center at Marine Corps Base Hawaii is a clinical facility that provides screenings and assessments for active-duty service members, adult family members, reservists and civilian employees of the base.—Following screening and assessment, diagnoses and treatment or program recommendations from SACC are confirmed by a Navy medical officer.
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