Nevadaref |
Thu Nov 01, 2007 02:47am |
Update
Associated Press
RENO — One of two 19-year-old men arrested in connection with a triple homicide at a Halloween party over the weekend was formally charged with murder in a criminal complaint filed Wednesday afternoon.
Samisoni Taukitoku was charged with three counts of murder with the use of a firearm for the Oct. 28 shooting deaths of Charles Coogan Kelly, 21, Truckee, Derek Kyle Jensen, 23, Reno, and Nathan Viljoen, 23, Fallon.
Tauikitoku and Saili Manu, who police say crashed the college party with Tauikitoku, each were charged Wednesday with assault with a deadly weapon and with coercion for the beating of University of Nevada, Reno basketball player Tyrone Hanson, 20. Reno police said the killings were prompted after Tauikitoku bumped Hanson on the dance floor and then allegedly beat him unconscious and robbed him.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Dan Greco told the Reno Gazette-Journal more charges could be possible against Manu and that he is awaiting final police reports until deciding. The complaint alleges that Taukitoku shot the men one or more times with a .380 caliber semiautomatic handgun and that the shooting occurred with ‘‘malice, aforethought, deliberation and premeditation.’’
In the coercion count, both men are accused of grabbing, punching and or kicking Hanson as he tried to leave the party. One of the men, the complaint said, committed the act and the second aided and abetted the attacker by acting as an enforcer or lookout, or by overcoming resistance from the victim and or any other person.
Taukitoku is charged with pointing a gun at Hansons head and Manu is accused of displaying a gun to one or more people and trying to fire it.
Hanson, a 6-foot-6 sophomore forward from New York, was severely beaten at the party early Sunday.
Nevada basketball coach Mark Fox announced Tuesday night he had dismissed Hanson from the team.
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