Brothers stand trial for a third time for 2016 shootings

SEATTLE — After two mistrials, a new panel of jurors is now hearing evidence in the murder case against two Seattle brothers who are accused of fatally shooting two people and injuring three others nearly three years ago during a robbery at “the Caves,” a former homeless encampment within the sprawling, 150-acre Jungle that was shut down by the city in October 2016.

James and Jerome Taafulisia, now 21 and 20, are being tried for a third time on two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree assault in connection with the Jan. 26, 2016, shooting spree. Unlike their previous trials, which were held at the Maleng Regional Justice Center (RJC) in Kent, this time their trial is underway at the King County courthouse in downtown Seattle before a different judge.

Opening statements to the jury of seven men and eight women began Thursday and resumed Monday afternoon, with the first two witnesses then taking the stand.

The state contends the Taafulisia brothers are responsible for the shootings, and prosecutors’ evidence includes a 90-minute video secretly recorded by two police informants of the brothers bragging about the killings, which were committed during a robbery of a prolific drug dealer. But defense attorneys, who have criticized the work done by detectives involved in the case, have argued the brothers took the fall for older, street-savvy members of their Samoan community who the brothers regarded as their elders and role models.

The Taafulisias’ younger brother, who was 13 at the time of the shootings, was convicted in juvenile court of murder and assault charges in May 2018. The next month, the first trial for the two older brothers began in King County Superior Court.

Now 17, the youngest brother will remain in custody until his 20th birthday and then will spend six months on parole as he transitions back into the community, according to disposition records in his case. In both of the older brothers’ trials, information on the younger brother’s conviction was withheld from jurors, presumably because revealing it would prejudice the case. The Seattle Times generally does not identify juveniles prosecuted and convicted in juvenile court.

On Aug. 9, 2018 a mistrial against the two eldest Taafulisia brothers was declared after the jury became hopelessly deadlocked. The jury forewoman told The Seattle Times that September the original panel was split 8 to 4 in favor of conviction.

The second jury heard opening statements in January, and in March, deadlocked 9 to 3 in favor of conviction.

The older brothers, who were 17 and 16 at the time of the shootings, had their first two trials held in Kent because, at the time, juvenile defendants charged as adults were housed at the RJC. In late 2017, a class-action lawsuit filed by four juveniles held in solitary confinement at the RJC prompted King County Executive Dow Constantine to order all juvenile defendants charged as adults be housed at the Youth Services Center in Seattle.

Carey, who presided over the brothers’ first two trials, retired from the court in March after the second mistrial. Prosecutors were later granted a motion to have the case moved back to Seattle, where the alleged crimes occurred.

After the first trial, a juror told The Times one or two of his fellow jurors were convinced there was a conspiracy against the brothers and they believed the older brothers had perhaps been coerced into confessing by older members of their tight-knit Samoan community.

The jury foreman in the second trial said he was convinced of James and Jerome Taafulisia’s guilt, but blamed the cast of unsavory characters called as witnesses in the trial and sloppy police work, especially by the lead Seattle police homicide detective, as reasons the three dissenting jurors became entrenched in their positions.

According to court records:

On the night of Jan. 26, 2016, a group of masked men approached Phat Nguyen, the target of the robbery, from behind. Seated around a fire pit with several other people, Nguyen, 46, was shot in the chest with a .45-caliber handgun. The man sitting next to him, 33-year-old James Tran, was shot twice with the .45 and died on the way to Harborview Medical Center.

Nguyen’s girlfriend, 47-year-old Tracy Bauer, and Amy Jo Shinault, 41, were each shot in the back. Nguyen, Bauer and Shinault all survived.

One of the suspects grabbed Nguyen’s bag and jacket.

As the group ran away, one of the shooters fired a .22-caliber handgun into a tent, hitting Jeanine Brooks, also known as Jeanine Zapata, in the chest. The 45-year-old died at the scene.

Police would later match casings from the scene to a .45 caliber handgun purchased from the brothers by a police informant and a .22-caliber handgun police later found in the brothers’ tent. James Taafulisia was allegedly armed with the .45-caliber and Jerome Taafulisia is accused of firing the .22-caliber.

The Taafulisia brothers took about $100 worth of black-tar heroin and $200 or $300 in cash, according to previous testimony.