That’s the shocking accusation from Salt Lake City TV station KUTV, which uncovered the fact that dozens of pieces of evidence were withheld from the defense attorneys representing a local teen accused of murder.
The teen, identified only as “Emiliano” by KUTV, was in the backseat of a car with a female friend on August 17, 2023 at a park in West Valley City when 24-year-old Niusami Auelua (who was later found to have high levels of methamphetamine in his system) approached the pair with a gun.
“I didn’t know what was gonna happen, I was scared you know,” Emiliano said. “I just, I hear him cock the gun back. I had a knife in my pocket, and I put it in my hand, and I closed our distance while trying to get the gun away from him – and you know, I stabbed him.”
After an initial investigation, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office declined to pursue charges against Emiliano based on the self-defense aspects of the incident. But months later, in February of 2024, the D.A. abruptly reversed course and charged the teen with murder, arguing that Emiliano “took it too far in terms of defending himself from this robbery”.
KUTV reports the teen ended up pleading guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter last September, and now faces years in prison.
After the case was closed, screen captures taken from the DA’s database show dozens of pieces of evidence were marked “not disclosed” to Emiliano or his defense attorney.
“Twenty-seven items of evidence came in on a closed case that’s unheard of. In total, it was over 30 items that were not ever disclosed to defense on a murder,” Meghann Mills told 2News Investigates – a former Senior Deputy District Attorney and Supervisor of the Juvenile Unit at the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office.
On the inside at the District Attorney’s Office, she was trying to blow the whistle about prosecutorial misconduct.
“After he pled and I was, I was like, I felt like my soul was broken, I tried so long, and he still pled and I just, I failed him,” Mills said.
The DA’s office has acknowledged that evidence was not turned over and blamed it on a change of prosecutor, Emiliano’s defense attorney, a paralegal and the West Valley City Police Department, saying it was inadvertent and inattentive.
In part two of KUTV’s investigation, which ran on Tuesday night, Mills accused prosecutor Adrianna Davis and police detective Josue Llil, who investigated the case, of having an inappropriate romantic relationship. Mills told the District Attorney that Davis was pressured by Llil to pursue charges against Emiliano, and while Davis was removed as prosecutor the case against the teen continued.
Neither Adrianna Davis nor Detective Llil would comment for this story. Davis’ Attorney Greg Skordas said the story could “needlessly hurt Davis.”
A spokesperson for West Valley City Police said they are conducting an internal affairs investigation.
Emiliano’s attorney filed motions asking for the case to be dismissed and Emiliano to be freed immediately. Additionally, Nathan Evershed filed a motion to disqualify the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office from the case. DA Gill’s office also has filed to overturn the plea bargain.
A hearing on Emiliano’s case is set for this morning in Salt Lake County, and hopefully the judge will grant the motion to dismiss the case and release the teen from custody. And honestly, there needs to be a criminal investigation into the actions of the Salt Lake County D.A.’s office and the West Valley City Police Department, or at least those employees who were involved in the decision to charge Emiliano with murder months after the determination he’d acted in self-defense had been made. If nothing else, I’d say Emiliano has strong grounds for a civil suit against these agencies and the individuals involved in his prosecution.
Read the full article here
