Salt Lake Police Capt. Viictor Siebeneck announced in February the names of six suspects believed to be connected to the 2019 shooting death of Kathryn Blaire Leavitt, 27. On Friday, police announced a third suspect had been arrested. (Pat Reavy, KSL.com)
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SALT LAKE CITY — A third person has been arrested in connection with the 2019 killing of a Salt Lake woman.
The arrest came three years to the day that 27-year-old Kathryn Blaire Leavitt’s apartment door at 1211 N. Redwood Road was kicked open and multiple shots were fired. Leavitt was shot twice and killed as her roommate hid inside another room.
In February, Salt Lake police, for the first time, announced the names of six suspects believed to have had some involvement in Leavitt’s death: Katoa Pahulu, 26; Sunia Cavazos, 22; Tevita Kofutua, 37; Lahelle Fiefia, 36; Mapilivai Laulea, 26; and, Timote Fonua, 41.
Fiefia, of West Jordan, was arrested a week later and charged with obstructing justice, a second-degree felony. Then in March, Pahulu surrendered to officers from the Maui Police Department after learning that a warrant had been issued for his arrest. He was charged with murder and aggravated burglary, first-degree felonies; and obstructing justice, a second-degree felony.
Police announced Friday that Fonua, of San Mateo, California, had been arrested. Fonua was charged on March 16 in 3rd District Court with murder and aggravated burglary, first-degree felonies, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. The charges were sealed as police looked for Fonua. On Thursday following word of his arrest, those charges were unsealed. He and Pahulu are listed in charging documents as co-defendants.
Fonua was taken into custody on Wednesday following a standoff with a SWAT team in San Mateo, according to police.
Leavitt’s roommate was interviewed by police after the shooting in 2019. She said she was awakened about 6:30 am by noises in the apartment. She found five men whom she did not know, plus Leavitt, according to police. She told the men to be quiet and then went back to bed. After telling the men two more times to be quiet, some of the men escorted at least one member of the group out, charging documents state.
“A short time later, (she) heard the noise of the front door being forced open, followed by two gunshots,” according to the charges.
The roommate was later able to identify some of the men in the apartment, including Fonua, the charges state. Police questioned Fonua in California in August, but he claimed he “had not been in Utah for nearly three years.”
However, DNA collected from a cigarette found at the crime scene was later matched to Fonua, according to the charges. Detectives also talked to multiple witnesses who they say “identified (Fonua) as one of the males that was being excited and animated prior to the apartment door being kicked in and shots being fired.”
Prosecutors will now work to have Fonua extradited to Utah to stand trial.
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Pat Reavy is a longtime police and courts reporter. He joined the KSL.com team in 2021 after many years of reporting for the Deseret News
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