Perjury charges follow jury acquittal in murder case

The Associated Press

TACOMA — Four years after a Virginia teen-ager was slain while visiting friends here — and three years after conflicting testimony led jurors to acquit the man accused in the slaying — six men have been charged with perjury.

The charges were filed by Pierce County prosecutors this past week and unsealed Friday after four of the accused had been arrested. The statute of limitations for such filings in the case ran out Friday and Saturday — three years after five of the men testified at the 1998 trial.

At issue is the death of Ann Marie Harris, 17, of Mount Vernon, Va. Harris was shot while riding in a car in suburban Lakewood on March 29, 1997. She was in the area visiting a friend at nearby Fort Lewis.

Prosecutors say that shortly after his arrest Friday, Lawrence Fetui told sheriff’s deputies that the older brother of Campbell Alefaio, who was charged and acquitted of Harris’ slaying, ordered three of those in the car from which the fatal shot was fired to blame another man in the vehicle.

They all went along, changing their initial stories and accusing Kenneth Tuialuuluu of firing the fatal shot, prosecutors say.

Under pressure from the Harris family, their attorneys and local politicians, Pierce County prosecutor Gerry Horne on Wednesday filed charges of first-degree conspiracy to commit perjury and first-degree perjury against Alefaio, 23; Alaivaa Tauese Jr., 22; Fred Titialii, 25; Todd Titialii, 22; and Fetui, 24.

After Fetui confessed, prosecutors filed conspiracy charges against Campbell Alefaio’s older brother, Puni Alefaio, 29.

Authorities were still looking for Puni Alefaio, believed to be in Texas, and Todd Titialii, who is living in Nevada, deputy prosecutor Barbara Corey-Boulet said Friday. The others were in custody.

Fetui’s confession made the prosecutors’ case "markedly better," she said.

Until this week, Horne maintained the office didn’t have the evidence to charge the men with perjury.

"We have re-evaluated the evidence, and I feel now it is valid for me to go on it," Horne said.

In Virginia, Harris’ sister, Sandy Kingma, said Friday it’s been painful for the family to accept that no one will be punished for the slaying. But she said she was comforted by the decision to file perjury charges.

"Because all along we’ve been hoping for justice," Kingsma said. "And we’ve been counting on justice, and that has never come."

Harris’s family has filed civil claims against the men in the car. It was not clear whether double jeopardy protections would prevent prosecutors from refiling murder charges in the case. Prosecutors did not immediately return a call on Saturday.

Defense attorney Wayne Fricke, who with Monte Hester represented Campbell Alefaio in the 1998 trial, said the perjury filing "doesn’t speak well for the justice system when there’s so much pressure placed to make decisions based on suspicions."

"I have never seen anything to suggest that they’ve committed perjury or there was a conspiracy to commit perjury," Fricke said, adding, "I believe Campbell.’

Shortly after the shooting, Campbell Alefaio, Fred Titialii, Tauese and Kenneth Tuialuuluu, who had been riding in another car, told sheriff’s deputies that Alefaio fired the fatal shot. Alefaio said he fired without aiming after the driver of the car in front of him tapped its brakes while some inside the car made obscene gestures.

But just before the trial, the defendant, Tauese and Fred Titialii changed their stories. They blamed Tuialuuluu, who had passed a lie-detector test while insisting that he had not killed Harris.

At the trial, Campbell Alefaio, Fred Titialii and Tauese testified that Tuialuuluu fired the fatal shot. Todd Titialii and Fetui said Tuialuuluu had been sitting in the front passenger seat, and had admitted firing the shot that killed Harris.

Jurors said they couldn’t determine who was lying. Campbell Alefaio was acquitted on Oct. 29, 1998.

Court papers say Campbell Alefaio, the Titialii brothers and Fetui were members of a gang, and that Tuialuuluu was asked to join but declined. The documents further note that the Alefaio, Titialii, Tauese and Fetui families are related, making Tuialuuluu an outsider.

Campbell Alefaio, Fred Titialii and Fetui are scheduled for court appearances Monday. Tauese, arrested Friday in Santa Clara, Calif., will appear in court there for an extradition hearing, prosecutors said.

The maximum penalty for a first-degree perjury conviction, for a defendant with no criminal record, is 10 years in prison. The maximum penalty for first-degree conspiracy to commit perjury is five years. The standard-range sentence for a defendant convicted of both crimes is one year, two months.

Corey-Boulet said prosecutors may seek an exceptional sentence.