Families plead for Taukitoku’s life
The argument in Thursday’s sentencing trial of Samisoni Taukitoku, the man found guilty of killing three last year, rested on variations of the word “monster.”
To the families of the Halloween party shooting victims, Taukitoku deserved the maximum sentence of life without parole. To his family, he deserved another chance at life, this time through parole 20 years after he starts a 50-year sentence.
The jury is expected to sentence Taukitoku Friday. They found him guilty on three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of assault with a deadly weapon Wednesday.
Tears ran freely as people pleaded to either minimize Taukitoku’s life or to give him a second chance at it. Megan Records, the girlfriend of murdered Derek Jensen, said she felt part of her soul being ripped out when the gunshots rang out in the early morning of Oct. 28, 2007.
“I wake up every morning having just relived that night and wishing for a different outcome,” she said.
Records said she and Jensen, the former Tau Kappa Epsilon president, planned to marry after he graduated in Decemeber 2007. Jensen, 23, was found shot several times outside the house. Charles Coogan Kelly, 21, and Nathan Viljoen, 23, were also shot to death that night.
“I could only ask that Samisoni Taukitoku spends the rest of his life in prison with no chance of getting out,” Records testified to the jury. She turned to Taukitoku. “You had your chance that night. Now please, never let him make another choice again.”
Kelly and Viljoen’s family all asked for maximum sentence as well. Bill Kelly, the father of Charles Kelly, called Taukitoku “every parent’s worst nightmare.”
Ben Viljoen said his son was “gunned down by thugs.” There are no words for the “uninhibited anger” that he feels at his son’s murder, he said.
On Taukitoku’s behalf, his family testified that he was a hard-working, family-oriented young man who grew up without a father figure. They uniformly answered that they were “shocked” that he would gun down three people.
“If I could just turn back time and change things, I would,” Taukitoku’s sister, Hehea Tuamoheloa, testified. But “I could never see my brother the way he is being made out to be.”
The family said they did not know he owned a handgun. They said they only knew him as the boy who dropped out of high school his sophomore year to work as a roofer and better support his family.
Another of Taukitoku’s sisters, Monique Taukitoku, said he was their sole provider. Taukitoku put off school to help her pay for college, she said. She can no longer afford it with him in jail, she said.
“I just want everyone to know that he’s not a bad person. He’s not a monster,” she said. “Please, have mercy on his life.”
The defense is expected to call at least two more witnesses to testify to Taukitoku’s character Friday. The witnesses are Reno-area business owners and not related to Taukitoku, his defense attorney said.
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