California: July 14, 2004
Daily Journal
The Menlo Park handyman accused of shooting a cab driver during a botched
robbery last fall knows hes facing a first-degree murder trial.
What 31-year-old Lousa Mataele doesnt know is if a conviction
will send him to life in prison without parole or death row.
A jury trial date was once again postponed yesterday because District
Attorney Jim Fox has yet to determine which punishment to seek. An answer
doesnt appear to be in the works any time soon, with the main
prosecutor on vacation and plenty of ongoing trials to keep the office
busy.
Thats a very good question. I really dont know,
said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe about the timeline
for a decision.
Fox just announced a decision in the death penalty-eligible case of
Eddie Rapoza this week. That triple murder occurred more than 22 months
ago. Fox also has a handful of other eligible cases to consider, including
Lawrence May who is accused of fatally stabbing his wife with a pair
of scissors.
Mataele is eligible for the death penalty in the fatal shooting of
21-year-old Davinder Singh and the attempted murder of a fellow cab
passenger because they both allegedly occurred during a felony robbery.
Mataele has pleaded not guilty to all charges, including great bodily
injury and attempted robbery.
Singhs Sept. 13 death set off worry in the Sikh community that
it was a hate crime, but authorities said it only appeared to be an
unprovoked attack. Singh was shot twice in the head.
The shooting occurred in the early morning hours, after a night of
drinking with 25-year-old Jaime Torres of Redwood City. The men barely
knew each other but Torres testified during a preliminary hearing that
Mataele went with him to a friends home to continue drinking.
When Torres called a cab to go home, Mataele climbed in, too. Shortly
into the drive, Mataele allegedly pulled a gun from a backpack he was
carrying and demanded money from Singh, the driver. Before Singh could
respond, he was shot twice, Torres said.
The shooting caused Singh to crash the cab into a parked car at Ebener
Street and Oak Avenue. Torres said Mataele then turned the gun toward
him, demanding his cell phone and gold teeth, before fleeing. Torres
suffered a cut lip. Singh died.
Mataele was discovered about 20 minutes later at a bus stop on El Camino
Real with the backpack containing the gun.
Mataele remains in custody on no-bail status. He returns to court Aug.
6 to set a trial date.
Peninsula cabbies
fearful after slaying
Sep. 15, 2003
SOME SIKHS UPSET OVER POLICE RESPONSE
By Patrick May
Mercury News
As dozens of Peninsula Sikh cabdrivers staged a work slowdown Sunday
to mourn a colleague slain over the weekend, many
lashed out at the Redwood City Police Department, saying their refusal
to talk about details of the crime has left them too terrified
to pick up fares.
Investigators have given no indication that the shooting death of
Davinder Singh early Saturday was a hate crime. But many of the
cabbies and most of Singh's relatives worry that the 21-year-old driver
was targeted because of his accent and orange turban. In
the absence of a public account of the incident, fear has settled in.
``These guys are just trying to make a living, but they're really
scared,'' said Bikram Singh, 36, owner of Yellow Cab Peninsula. His
35-taxi fleet is one of the area's largest. Sunday, he joined drivers
outside the victim's home in Redwood Shores to pay respect to Singh's
grieving mother and two brothers.
``Everyday these drivers are insulted by passengers who tell them,
`Go back to your own country' or call them `bin Laden,' '' he
said. ``And when they go to complain, the police don't listen. I think
the police feel we're not part of the community so they can't
be bothered to take the time to help us out.''
Detectives, who early Saturday arrested Singh's accused killer, Lousa
Mataele, a 31-year-old Tongan construction worker from
Menlo Park, did not return calls Sunday. But Redwood City police Sgt.
Sean Hart expressed surprise that the cabdrivers felt they
were being treated unfairly.
``We respond to all calls for service as soon as possible,'' Hart
said. ``The department has a very positive relationship with the
cabbies. They call us and we respond.'' Singh's relatives are outraged
by the way authorities have dealt with them, saying police didn't notify
them in the hours after the death. The victim's older brother, Sarabjit,
said police were ``not
very forthcoming. They never even called us to say my brother had been
shot.''
According to a brief news release from police, along with interviews
by the Mercury News, here's what happened:
About 2:30 a.m. Saturday, Mataele and a friend named Jaime knocked
on the door at 509 Madison Ave. in Redwood City. ``I
knew Lousa vaguely from playing pool,'' said the apartment's resident,
who identified himself only as Justin. ``He said he was
being chased by somebody and wanted to come in. They hung out awhile;
they were really drunk. It was creepy, so I called Yellow Cab for them.
I got the feeling they were out looking for trouble. I guess they found
it.''
Singh, who had been driving a taxi for two years, picked up the two
men and headed for an unknown destination. At 3:22 a.m.,
about 15 blocks away, Singh's cab rolled to a stop at Oak Avenue and
Ebener Street. ``During a confrontation inside the taxicab,'' according
to the release, ``the suspect fired several shots into the victim's
head, killing him.''
The cab then lurched forward, clipping the rear bumper of a neighbor's
Ford Tempo. Mataele ran away, police said, and was
later apprehended. The other passenger was not arrested, but police
said he is a witness to the crime. Singh's body remained in the cab
for hours as police and coroner investigators collected evidence. At
6:30 a.m., neighbor Miriam Epstein looked out from her house.
``I watched them pull the guy out of the car, then saw them take out
his orange turban, which looked like it was covered with black gunpowder,''
she said. ``They must have shot him right through his turban.'' While
police scoured the scene, Singh's older brother, also a cabdriver, got
up at 5 a.m. to go to work. Sarabjit Singh's boss told him he had just
seen something on television about a Redwood City cabby being killed.
Sarabjit called his younger brother's two cell phones, but got no
answer. He called home, but their mother said Davinder hadn't
returned yet from his nightly shift. He called Davinder's company, Yellow
Cab 2000, where someone said his brother had been
involved in a crime and had been arrested.
Sarabjit Singh drove to the jail. He drove to the California Highway
Patrol. He drove to the hospital. Panicked, he went to the police. After
waiting for 15 minutes, he said, a police officer showed him his brother's
ID and told him ``he got good medicine and he's sleeping at the county
hospital. I said, `Let me go and see him,' and they said no. Then other
police came and told me he was dead.''
``This was 7 a.m. and he'd been dead since 3:30 a.m.,'' Sarabjit Singh
said. Police said Sunday that it's up to the coroner to notify next
of kin. San Mateo County coroner's investigator Phil Hickman said that
according to the case report, another investigator did contact Singh's
mother. But Singh's younger brother Ranjeet said, ``My mother doesn't
speak English, so how are they going to tell her? And nobody came by.
I think they're making it up.''