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March 17, 2011
Volume XXIX - Issue 4
Death penalty now an option New development in the murder of a Skyline student by Kiriakos Vilchez
Courtesy of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office
Laungatasi Samana Ahio is currently being held without bail.
Laungatasi Ahio, the man charged with killing Skyline College student Jared Afu, may face the death penalty. According to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s office, on Feb. 9 the prosecution in the case presented to the court an allegation that Ahio was lying in wait for the victim, which could allow for them to push for either life without parole or the death penalty for Ahio. As of right now, the San Mateo County District Attorney’s office cannot comment on a possible outcome, but prosecutors acknowledged the new flexibility. A special circumstance was presented to the court that Ahio was waiting for the victim, based on additional witness details from that day. This means that this new allegation could allow for the possibility of life without parole or the death
penalty, District Attorney Stephen M. Wagstaffe told The Skyline View. Wagstaffe added that the prosecution will decide what punishment would be appropriate based on what other background information they find. On August 4, 2010, Jared Afu, a first-semester Skyline student interested in automotive technology, was smoking a cigarette with three other individuals near the tennis courts at Mills High School when Ahio approached him. Ahio’s reason for confronting Afu was his suspicion that the 19-year-old student was romantically involved with Ahio’s wife. Ahio proceeded to stab Afu multiple times in the head and neck with a knife before fleeing the scene. After the attack, Millbrae police found Afu suffering from his wounds. He was later pronounced dead at the scene. Ahio’s family persuaded him to surrender to police
the following day. Catherine Afu told KTVU in an interview in 2010 that she wanted people to remember him as a good person. As of press time, Afu could not be reached to comment on the latest development in the Ahio case. Ahio, a Millbrae resident, had been convicted months before for battery. On May 29, 2010, Millbrae police arrested Ahio on battery and false imprisonment allegations involving his girlfriend. Two months later, Ahio pleaded no contest to the battery misdemeanor and had to serve three years of probation and 104 hours of counseling. On April 28, a preliminary hearing will be held in the murder case. Until the court makes its next decision, Ahio is being held without the possibility of bail. Ahio has pleaded not guilty of the murder of Afu.
Evacuations after tsunami warning Students and faculty living on lowlying coastal areas evacuated early by Robyn Graham
While damage from the tsunami was insignificant to the Bay Area, many were unsure of its actual strength when the tsunami advisory increased to a warning around 4 a.m. last Friday. Some went to evacuation sites like Half Moon Bay High School and Skyline Boulevard at the Highway 92 intersection, while others just went to higher ground. Skyline student Maria Martinez said the experience was scarier than the Loma Prieda earthquake in 1989. She awoke at 5 a.m. at her Half Moon Bay home, half a mile away from the beach, and was told to evacuate. “I woke up to a cop telling my neighborhood over a loud speaker to head to higher ground,” Martinez said. “It was pure and utter chaos.” Sisters Cherissa and Carina Woudenberg in Mel Zucker ’s geology class also felt the panic at 5 a.m. when their father came to wake them up. They evacuated from their home
in Moss Beach, being close enough to hear the ocean from their house. They tried to bring their cats with them and only brought one because they couldn’t find the other one fast enough, in addition to their geology book so they could read up on tsunamis. “We didn’t know that early in the morning,” Cherissa Woundenberg said. “It was just,‘Get up; there is a tsunami warning. We got to get up.’” Carina Woudenberg received San Mateo County’s Community Alert System alert texts that day and noted the difference between the earlier texts and the later ones as more was learned about how threatening the tsunami would be. “It seemed so dramatic,” Carina
said, referring to the first text telling people to evacuate. A later text message at 8 a.m. said it was “advisable” to move inland. “It was sort of exciting. I mean, at first it was a little scary, but then I thought: ‘This is geology!’” Skyline geology professor Mel Zucker felt the same excitement and genuine interest as his geology students, especially since his Geology 105 class is currently learning about earthquakes. Zucker noted an increased student interest in 2004 after Indonesia’s earthquake and tsunami. “What really causes the action is when the sea floor moves vertically, like in a subduction plate: The water above it is displaced,” Zucker explained. While California has major subducting plates, they are all on land and less of a threat because when an earthquake happens and they move, it is only displacing air, Woudenberg compared to water, said Zucker.
“It was sort of exciting. I mean, at first it was a little scary, but then I thought: ‘This is geology!’” -Carina
Robyn Graham/The Skyline View
Tsunami evacuation sign points towards Farllone View Elementary School in Montara.