00:00:05
NARRATOR: In the United
States of America, some of the world's most
dangerous and violent prisoners
00:00:10
are locked behind bars. One of the worst
is Miti Maugaotega. BRAD MILLER: He
can't be ever placed
00:00:20
with any other human
being, because he has shown time and time
again that he's a murderer,
00:00:24
a cold blooded murderer. MITI MAUGAOTEGA: I
just want him dead. [tense music] I stab him a couple of times.
00:00:31
INVESTIGATOR: OK. MITI MAUGAOTEGA: I stab
him a couple of times. He didn't want to come down.
00:00:35
INVESTIGATOR: Do you know
where you stabbed him at? MITI MAUGAOTEGA: In the neck.
INVESTIGATOR: In the neck?
00:00:38
MITI MAUGAOTEGA:
Yeah, all over. NARRATOR: At just 17 years
old, he robbed and sexually
00:00:44
assaulted a 55-year-old woman. - He pistol whipped
her into compliance. DR. LINA HAJI: It is
more about the power
00:00:54
and the control,
and exerting his will over a vulnerable victim. NARRATOR: His level of criminal
behavior quickly escalated
00:01:03
with attempted murder. PAUL MOW: A second
shot is fired, and that second shot hits
him in his upper left chest.
00:01:11
[ominous music] 5 feet away. So we're talking about
point blank range. [ominous ticking]
00:01:18
PATRICK JOHNSON: If he
had not been caught, he probably would have
shot somebody else
00:01:22
or killed someone. [ominous ticking] NARRATOR: Even
locked behind bars. Maugaotega is
a tornado of aggression
00:01:32
that is difficult to contain. [ominous ticking] BRAD MILLER:
Maugaotega immediately
00:01:37
ran out of his jail cell,
found another inmate that he wanted
to injure, and decided
00:01:41
to beat that person
to a pulp, cracking his skull, ripping off his top lip,
and injuring him so severely.
00:01:48
[ominous music] NARRATOR: He violently
attacked four more inmates, then went on to brutally
kill a fifth.
00:01:57
BRAD MILLER: He's an extremely
dangerous individual. And when he has an opportunity
to harm or to kill somebody,
00:02:04
he takes that opportunity. [suspenseful music] DR. LINA HAJI: I think
Maugaotega is one
00:02:10
of the highest levels of evil. [theme music] [audio logo] [theme music] NARRATOR: Saguaro
Correctional Center houses
00:02:43
around 2,000 inmates, more than
half of those are from Hawaii. [suspenseful music]
00:02:49
WILLIAM WALLACE: The Saguaro
prison facility is a maximum security facility. It houses some
of the most dangerous
00:02:55
prisoners from Hawaii. Most inmates are there
for very serious crimes, lengthy prison sentence
for violent crimes.
00:03:02
[suspenseful music] - It's made
for the highest security inmates in the United States.
00:03:10
It's a very dangerous facility. PATRICK JOHNSON: This
work facility does have a large Uso presence.
00:03:19
WILLIAM WALLACE: Uso means
brother in the Samoan language. It's a prison gang
that is formed
00:03:25
for protection for Samoan
and Hawaiian inmates. The Uso Prison
Gang is different
00:03:31
than traditional prison gangs. There's no real
rules other than you have to be from Hawaii.
00:03:37
It doesn't matter what type
of crime you've committed, you can still join
the Uso Prison Gang.
00:03:42
[suspenseful music] NARRATOR: One of the most
notorious Uso Gang members is Miti Maugaotega Jr.
00:03:53
[suspenseful music] PATRICK JOHNSON: He
is one of the most violent and dangerous
inmates that I've
00:04:05
dealt with in my career. BRAD MILLER: He hates society. He hates people. [ominous music]
00:04:12
He tries to kill
them when he can. [suspenseful music] NARRATOR: Miti Maugaotega Jr.
was born September 29, 1985,
00:04:34
in American Samoa,
an island just over 2,000 miles off the coast of Hawaii. [tense music]
00:04:45
WILLIAM WALLACE: His father
was part of a local royal family on American Samoa. His grandfather
was a like a chief
00:04:49
or a leader of the family. - His parents divorced
at a-- at a pretty young age and he went to live
with his grandparents.
00:05:00
NARRATOR: Despite his
parents, apparently, being largely absent from his life. Miti was raised
in a loving household.
00:05:06
[tense music] PATRICK JOHNSON: He was
his grandfather's favorite. He was someone that
his grandfather
00:05:12
looked at as someone
who could possibly be the leader of the family. [tense music]
00:05:18
NARRATOR: When Miti was
just four years of age, a tragic accident left
him scarred for life.
00:05:24
[ominous music] PATRICK JOHNSON: He was
playing with some cousins around a fire,
and one of the cousins
00:05:31
kicked a bottle that had
some kind of gasoline, and basically,
the fire exploded
00:05:37
and it exploded onto him. [ominous music] PAUL MOW: He suffered
from third degree
00:05:45
burns and scars on his
body that traumatized him. [somber music] DR. LINA HAJI: He was
confined to a medical facility
00:05:57
for a period of six months. He could have experienced
depression, anxiety, he could have felt different
than his peers, very isolated,
00:06:07
and it also could have
resulted in long term mental and emotional damage. [somber music]
00:06:16
NARRATOR: There was further
devastation for Miti, when the grandfather he was
so close to passed away.
00:06:25
PATRICK JOHNSON:
His grandmother decided to move him from
American Samoa to Hawaii
00:06:28
around seven years old. She did that
because she knew that he needed special
treatment for his burns.
00:06:34
His grandmother
believed that there may be better opportunity
for him in Hawaii than he had in American Samoa.
00:06:40
[somber music] [ambient music] PAUL MOW: Hawaiian
enjoys a lower crime rate than other states.
00:06:58
Geographically, we're
separated from the mainland US, and so the ability
of people to get
00:07:05
in and out,
in particular criminals, I guess in this case is harder. They can't cross state
lines that easily.
00:07:10
You got to go
by a plane or a ship. The other part, of course, has
to do with our cultural norms.
00:07:18
We have strong
family structures. We have respect for elders. We have people that
feel a responsibility
00:07:25
to the community. [ambient music] NARRATOR: Maugaotega settled
well, but around the age of 12
00:07:34
he began to change. [tense music] PATRICK JOHNSON: He
started hanging out with friends that probably
were not the best influence
00:07:41
and he probably wasn't
the best influence on them. He started using drugs. He started skipping school.
00:07:48
[ambient music] WILLIAM WALLACE:
He started engaging in criminal
activity at a fairly
00:07:54
young age, 13, 14 years old. Burglaries, thefts. DR. LINA HAJI:
There's a likelihood
00:08:02
that he probably met
criteria for what we call conduct
disorder, which is essentially
antisocial personality
00:08:08
disorder in children. Aggression, deceitfulness,
manipulation, a complete disregard
for societal norms.
00:08:19
So he's already on the path to
showing this kind of affinity for criminality. NARRATOR: Miti Maugaotega was
so prolific in his lawlessness
00:08:31
that in 1999, aged just 14,
the Hawaiian authorities banished him back to his
Homeland of American Samoa.
00:08:42
He was forbidden to return
to Hawaii until he was 18. PAUL MOW: It would have to be
something serious enough
00:08:50
that the judge
would order this, sending him back
to American Samoa. Sometimes judges do
that because they
00:08:56
feel that out
of their cultural environment, they're more likely
to commit crimes.
00:09:01
[ambient music] NARRATOR: Over
the next four years, not much is known
about Maugaotega's life
00:09:10
back in American Samoa. Then, in April 2003, Maugaotega
violates the order against him
00:09:19
and illegally re-enters Hawaii. He was just five months
away from turning 18. Within days of his return, he
was back to illegally entering
00:09:31
people's homes with force. WILLIAM WALLACE: He committed
these robberies with a weapon.
00:09:37
He would terrorize regular
residential neighborhoods, very middle class areas. Violent crime isn't
very apparent in Hawaii,
00:09:45
so these types of crimes
were very shocking to people. NARRATOR: Maugaotega
spiraled into drug addiction
00:09:53
and would steal watches,
jewelry, anything of value. Take it to a pawnshop and use
the cash to feed his habit.
00:10:01
[tense music] One evening, Maugaotega's
crimes would take a darker turn, when
he broke into the home
00:10:10
of a 55-year-old woman. [ominous music] PATRICK JOHNSON: She was
asleep around 11 o'clock.
00:10:21
PAUL MOW: He was rummaging
through her dresser. He noticed that she
was there asleep.
00:10:28
So he decides to wake her up. He demanded money from her. But then he also
sexually assaulted her.
00:10:39
She tried to get away
from him, but what he did was he pistol whipped
her into compliance.
00:10:44
[ominous music] DR. LINA HAJI: The fact
that Maugaotega decided to sexually assault
her as opposed to just
00:10:59
robbing her, again,
shows that he has this antisocial personality. Where it's not
about the robbery,
00:11:06
it is more about
the power, and the control, and exerting his will
over a vulnerable victim.
00:11:13
[tense music] This also has a rage component. He's clearly filled with anger. He's taking this rage
out on a completely
00:11:24
vulnerable, innocent victim. And there was really
no need for this kind of gratuitous violence.
00:11:33
So to me, that tells
me that Maugaotega was probably enjoying
inflicting pain on his victim.
00:11:40
[foreboding music] BRAD MILLER: Maugaotega
was certainly escalating in violence
as he was getting older,
00:11:47
and the danger
for the community was that not only
was he getting older, but he was getting stronger.
00:11:51
[tense music] He was getting bigger and he
was getting more bold. [throbbing sound]
00:11:59
NARRATOR: Just three days after
he committed the sexual assault and robbery. Maugaotega would strike again.
00:12:06
[throbbing sound] PAUL MOW: It's daytime
Mr. Kawamoto came home. Civilian electrical engineer,
he worked for the military.
00:12:15
[throbbing sound] He came home on his motorcycle. He gets into the house. Right away he notices
something's wrong.
00:12:24
He sees these two Japanese
dolls, there on the floor. [suspenseful music] As he was noticing these dolls,
that's when Maugaotega came
00:12:37
toward him from the kitchen. [suspenseful music] He points the .45
Colt at Kawamoto
00:12:48
and he demands,
give me your wallet. Give me your money. And Kawamoto complies,
and then he further says,
00:12:54
well, I want you
to show me things that you got down in the
bedroom, down the stairs.
00:12:59
[suspenseful music] Kawamoto starts going
down the stairs. He takes a couple steps
and then he stops.
00:13:09
[tense music] This guy is going to kill
me when I get down there. It doesn't matter whether I
cooperate him with or not.
00:13:17
So he comes back up the stairs,
and Maugaotega's surprised. [suspenseful music] And Maugaotega fires the gun,
but when he fires the gun,
00:13:29
it goes click. [gun clicks] The gun had jammed or misfired,
something had happened.
00:13:36
He tries to reset the gun
because Kawamoto's thinking, I'm going to see if I
can wrestle the gun.
00:13:42
So he's still
approaching him, and from a distance of about 5
feet, a second shot is fired.
00:13:49
In that second shot hits
him in his upper left chest. [tense music] [gunshot] 5 feet away, so we're talking
about point-blank range.
00:13:58
[tense music] NARRATOR: Maugaotega
fled the house, leaving Kawamoto for dead. - Mr. Kawamoto had a gunshot
wound to the chest.
00:14:11
It was about a centimeter
from his heart. PAUL MOW: He gets
outside of his house,
00:14:16
and he's able to get to his
neighbor's front door. The neighbor comes out and she
sees him on the ground,
00:14:25
in front of her door and this
big pie sized bloodstain on his shirt, but he's
still able to tell her,
00:14:35
call the police, call 911. [tense music] DR. LINA HAJI:
What's interesting is that he went
to rob this victim,
00:14:44
and then he was
confronted by the victim. And it seems that being
confronted by a man
00:14:51
is very different than having
been confronted by a woman. And with the prior
female victim,
00:14:59
he exerted power,
and control, and anger with the sexual assault,
and the pistol whipping.
00:15:05
With the man, he
seems to be a lot more fearful, intimidated,
and less in control,
00:15:13
and so he resorts
to shooting him. NARRATOR: While
43-year-old, Eric Kawamoto, was rushed to the hospital,
his attacker, 17-year-old
00:15:23
Maugaotega was on the run. [suspenseful music] PAUL MOW: By that time,
police had been alerted.
00:15:33
[tense music] There was a description
of Maugaotega that was given by Kawamoto
and the neighbor that
00:15:41
was used to help
to track and identify him as he was going along the
route, as he was escaping out.
00:15:49
NARRATOR: 50 minutes after
shooting Eric Kawamoto, Maugaotega was
being hunted down.
00:15:56
[suspenseful music] PAUL MOW: There's
an officer that's pursuing him that
at one point, when he's
00:16:03
on the Hawaii Baptist
Academy grounds, he sees him toss the gun. He was trying to scale
a fence, and I think
00:16:12
he falls off of the fence. [ominous music] NARRATOR: Maugaotega
was captured. [somber music]
00:16:27
PAUL MOW: They found drugs. They found pipes. There was cocaine. There was meth
residue in the pipes.
00:16:34
His pockets were
bulging with jewelry. And the jewelry turned
out to be jewelry that
00:16:39
was from the Kawamoto home. [shutter clicks] Jewelry owned
by Kawamoto's wife, some
00:16:45
by Kawamoto's wife's mother. He had plundered
the Kawamoto home. [shutter clicks]
00:16:52
PATRICK JOHNSON: I don't
think he would have stopped until he was arrested. He kept committing crimes.
00:16:57
He kept escalating crimes. And if he had not been caught
for shooting Mr. Kawamoto,
00:17:03
he probably would have
shot somebody else or killed someone. [ambient music] Crimes like this don't
happen often in Hawaii.
00:17:11
And it was a crime spree that
the media really caught on to it, and I think it
really just shocked
00:17:17
and shook the community
in Hawaii kind to its core. [tense music] WILLIAM WALLACE:
It's very shocking
00:17:24
to know that a 17-year-old is
capable of all this violence. [suspenseful music] NARRATOR: Maugaotega
was charged
00:17:31
with second-degree
attempted murder, first-degree sexual assault,
five counts of burglary,
00:17:38
four counts of robbery,
second-degree assault, as well as drugs
and weapons charges.
00:17:45
He pled not guilty. Despite only being
17 years of age, the judge decided he would
be tried as an adult given
00:17:55
the severity of the crimes. [tense music] - Even though he's
17 years of age, he's a very dangerous
individual and
00:18:08
it warrants being treated
as an adult with regards to sentencing and the crimes
that he faces, his charges.
00:18:16
NARRATOR: On February 20,
2004, the trial began. By pleading not guilty,
Maugaotega forced his victims
00:18:26
to testify in court. [tense music] [shutter clicks] - I'm the chief of staff
for the Department
00:18:37
of Prosecuting Attorney
here in Honolulu, Hawaii. The one moment I think that
really, really stands out
00:18:45
is the day that Eric
Kawamoto actually testifies. [tense music] Man has incredible guts,
just standing your ground,
00:18:56
protecting your home,
confronting this individual, and not letting
him control you.
00:19:02
[ominous music] The woman who was raped,
she talked at length about persistent nightmares
over the incident,
00:19:18
and she also talked
about a grandson who used to come over to visit her. He felt so unsafe
by being there
00:19:27
that he would carry a baseball
bat for his own protection. And when you go
into people's home,
00:19:34
you're invading someone's home,
the sanctity of their home. You're not going to feel
safe for a long time.
00:19:40
You feel violated. That is the effect
that it has on victims. NARRATOR: After a 7-day trial,
the jury found Miti Maugaotega
00:19:51
guilty of all charges. [suspenseful music] On May 17, 2004,
he was sentenced to life without parole
for shooting Eric Kawamoto.
00:20:09
For his other crimes, he
was given 10 life sentences. [somber music] At the time, he had been
given the longest prison
00:20:18
sentence in Hawaii's history. [suspenseful music] PAUL MOW: I don't recall
him being very remorseful.
00:20:33
He apologized in court
to Kawamoto's and to the other
victims, but I don't ever think that
he really, truly
00:20:41
was sincere when he did that. For one thing, when
he apologized to them, he did so with his
back facing them.
00:20:51
I want to say that he
just kind of was going through the motions, you
know, with an apology
00:20:56
to make himself look good. I don't believe
that he was sincere. PATRICK JOHNSON: The thing
about his sentence in Hawaii
00:21:02
is that he was
a juvenile, tried as an adult for the crimes
he committed, but it was unusual
for a juvenile to be
00:21:10
given such a lengthy sentence. [suspenseful music] DR. LINA HAJI: This was the
longest prison sentence handed
00:21:24
down in Hawaiian history. And so I think that
this might have actually inflated
his ego, especially
00:21:31
because he was so young. The brain isn't fully
developed at the age of 17-18. And so a lot of the times,
you see young offenders
00:21:40
not really fully processed. The fact that they've just
been sentenced to so much time,
00:21:46
or that they're likely
going to die in prison, they're almost
dismissive of it. So for somebody
like Maugaotega,
00:21:52
I suspect that
a life sentence may have actually been
something that he wore as a badge of honor.
00:21:59
[tense music] NARRATOR: Maugaotega
started his sentence in a Hawaiian jail. He quickly showed he would
be a problematic prisoner.
00:22:11
In January 2005,
he was identified as being responsible for an
attack on a fellow inmate.
00:22:19
Maugaotega was transferred
to the mainland and to Tallahatchie prison. [suspenseful music]
00:22:30
This high security prison
has the capacity to hold approximately 2,500 inmates. WILLIAM WALLACE: There's
a large population
00:22:41
of Uso Gang members
in the Tallahatchie prison facility in Mississippi. [shutter clicks]
00:22:47
Because the Hawaiians are
outnumbered within the prison system there, so they
form that prison
00:22:54
gang for their own protection. [tense music] PATRICK JOHNSON:
The Uso family has been
00:22:59
established for over 20 years. They operate more
in criminal activity. They are engaged
in felony activity.
00:23:07
They commit acts of violence. Their purpose is to benefit
the members of the Uso family
00:23:12
while they're serving
their time in prison. NARRATOR: Maugaotega
is believed to have joined the prison
gang early on in his sentence.
00:23:22
[foreboding music] DR. LINA HAJI: For somebody
like Maugaotega, he was a perfect candidate
to become a gang member.
00:23:32
Joining a gang is a perfect
environment for him to further his desire
to choose violence
00:23:37
and to inflict harm on people. Because gangs,
their primary role is to continue committing
crimes in prison,
00:23:43
so Maugaotega would have
likely been allured by this. It's an opportunity for more
power and more control.
00:23:51
He could climb the ranks,
so this could have been viewed as a challenge for him.
00:23:56
NARRATOR: Maugaotega
quickly racked up offenses. WILLIAM WALLACE: By getting his
prison record in Mississippi
00:24:02
is full of disciplinary
infractions, fighting possession
of weapons and assaults.
00:24:09
[tense music] NARRATOR: After a vicious
attack on another inmate, he was deemed so volatile
that there was only one way
00:24:18
to deal with him. [tense music] BRAD MILLER: Maugaotega
was put on what's called an administrative hold,
where he's not allowed to be
00:24:25
around any other prisoners. But the first
opportunity to get out of that particular
situation, he took it.
00:24:33
[ominous music] NARRATOR: A prison
guard mistakenly pushed the button that
released all of the cell doors.
00:24:41
Maugaotega first
thought was blood. [suspenseful music] BRAD MILLER:
Maugaotega immediately
00:24:47
ran out of his jail cell. Found another inmate
that he wanted to injure, and decided to beat that person
to a pulp, cracking his skull,
00:24:58
ripping off his top lip,
and injuring him so severely. That's how violent
Maugaotega was.
00:25:04
[tense music] NARRATOR: The prisoner who
Maugaotega attacked was left with permanent brain damage.
00:25:13
[ominous music] DR. LINA HAJI:
Maugaotega has already shown the world that he is
escalating, and so of course,
00:25:23
his attacks have to become
more brutal, more horrific. [shutter clicks] NARRATOR: Maugaotega appeared
to be used by the Uso Gang
00:25:34
as a weapon of mass
destruction. It wasn't long before
he struck again. [tense music]
00:25:42
PATRICK JOHNSON:
Mr. Maugaotega and several other inmates assaulted
inmate Alejandro Steele.
00:25:49
Mr. Steele was found
by correctional officers laying on the floor. He was conscious,
but he had a broken jaw.
00:25:57
[ominous music] DR. LINA HAJI: For him, this is
almost becoming like his job. He doesn't seem to have
any kind of remorse
00:26:12
or any ability to understand
the value of human life. It's giving him
a reputation, which
00:26:20
is something to be
desired within a gang, within a correctional facility. So he's continuing on with
this because there really
00:26:27
are no negative
consequences to him committing these
heinous, egregious acts on other inmates.
00:26:34
[tense music] BRAD MILLER: He's an extremely
dangerous individual, and when he has an opportunity
to harm or to kill somebody,
00:26:45
he takes that opportunity. He hates society. He hates people, and he tries
to kill them when he can.
00:26:52
[tense music] NARRATOR: Maugaotega
behavior at Tallahatchie was so disruptive that he
was moved from Mississippi
00:27:01
to a prison in Arizona. [suspenseful music] WILLIAM WALLACE: In the Saguaro
facility, there's approximately
00:27:15
1,000 Hawaiian inmates. Maugaotega was part
of a SHIP program, S-H-I-P. It's a special housing unit
where they put all different
00:27:28
types of gang members, all
in the same prison pod system, and house them all together.
00:27:34
[suspenseful music] NARRATOR: One of Maugaotega's
fellow Hawaiian inmates was 26-year-old Bronson Nunuha.
00:27:44
[tense music] PATRICK JOHNSON: Bronson
Nunuha was a Hawaiian inmate. He was originally from
the island of Maui.
00:27:54
He was sent to Saguaro
Prison for property crimes. He had a burglary
conviction and auto
00:28:03
theft Mr. Nunuha
was scheduled to be released within a few months. His aspirations were to go back
to Maui and be with his son.
00:28:15
His son was around
five years old, and that was what he wanted
to do when he got out
00:28:21
was go back and be
a father to his son. [tense music] NARRATOR: Although Nunuha
was a fellow Hawaiian,
00:28:28
he was in a different
prison gang to Maugaotega. [ambient music] PATRICK JOHNSON:
The West Side Gang
00:28:35
is another gang from Hawaii. They are classified
as a security threat group by the Hawaiian Department
of Public Safety.
00:28:43
West Side and Uso, they house
together, they eat together, go to recreation together.
00:28:48
So they're not rivals
that are always fighting with each other,
but they are rivals.
00:28:55
Nunuha was just a soldier
within the West Side gang. He did not have
a leadership role.
00:28:59
He was just a member. [tense music] WILLIAM WALLACE: It appeared
as though Nunuha was
00:29:06
being targeted by Maugaotega. Maugaotega didn't
like Bronson Nunuha. [ominous music]
00:29:15
Maugaotega started
picking on him, at one point at a basketball
court in early 2010,
00:29:20
he decided to punch
Bronson in the face. [suspenseful music] DR. LINA HAJI:
Maugaotega, he wasn't
00:29:27
content with these two gangs
civilly existing together. He is like a bully. He goes up to Nunuha
and he incites violence.
00:29:39
He seemingly punches
him in the face for no real reason
other than some kind of tiff on a basketball court.
00:29:45
Maugaotega is
looking for trouble. He's looking
to cause separation. He wants violence.
00:29:52
He wants problems. He wants conflicts. He thrives off of that. [suspenseful music]
00:29:58
NARRATOR: In contrast,
Nunuha didn't appear to want any trouble. He tried to keep away from
his antagonist, Maugaotega.
00:30:05
[tense music] PATRICK JOHNSON:
We knew that he had not gone out to a recreation.
00:30:11
He had not left his
cell, it was abnormal. We don't know whether
or not Nunuha was actually
00:30:18
sick or if he was
scared of Maugaotega doing something to him. [ominous music] NARRATOR: Maugaotega
was not a lone warrior.
00:30:30
He had a right hand man. [tense music] PATRICK JOHNSON: Micah
Kanahele is another Uso member.
00:30:38
He was housed in the same
pod as Nunuha and Maugaotega. Micah Kanahele
was serving a life
00:30:47
with the possibility
of parole sentence for a murder in Hawaii. [suspenseful music]
00:30:55
NARRATOR: Maugaotega
wanted Bronson Nunuha dead and enlisted Kanahele to help. While Nunuha was
marked for death
00:31:04
was never known, making shanks,
they waited for their moment. [suspenseful music]
00:31:12
PATRICK JOHNSON:
Maugaotega and Kanahele knew the schedules
of the correctional officers
00:31:16
that were working. Prison is an environment
that runs on schedules, and inmates know that.
00:31:25
And so inmates know when
they have opportunities to commit crimes. NARRATOR: Eight days
after Maugaotega punched
00:31:35
Nunuha, that opportunity came. Maugaotega and Kanahele
grabbed their shanks, and headed to the new
house cell.
00:31:46
It appeared he knew
they were coming. PATRICK JOHNSON:
Nunuha was scared. And Nunuha was on his bunk.
00:31:54
He saw them come
in and he curled up, probably hoping
that his worst nightmare wasn't coming true.
00:32:02
He did not fight back. He tried to protect himself. They both had shanks and that's
when Maugaotega began stabbing.
00:32:12
Kanahele was also
stabbing in Nunuha. Maugaotega said that he
dragged Nunuha off the bed
00:32:18
where Nunuha hit the floor. The two men were stabbing
the Nunuha over and over again.
00:32:26
But Maugaotega
wanted to make sure that Nunuha was dead,
so he stomped on his neck,
00:32:31
breaking his neck,
causing him to die. [tense music] And that's when Maugaotega
carved Uso into Nunuha chest.
00:32:39
[somber music] DR. LINA HAJI: He
stabs him 140 times, which is considered overkill.
00:32:52
I don't think he
needed a reason. He didn't need a reason,
really, in his past crimes.
00:32:57
This really shows us that
he's continuing to escalate, but he's continuing
to act this way because he
00:33:05
actually enjoys violence. He enjoys the act of violence. He enjoys the act
of inflicting and causing
00:33:14
harm to other human beings. [somber music] WILLIAM WALLACE: Maugaotega
carved his gang name, Uso,
00:33:22
in Bronson Nunuha's
chest as a message to send to the other
West Side Gang members
00:33:28
that you're not
to antagonize the Uso Gang. In my years
of prosecuting, I've never seen anything like this.
00:33:36
[suspenseful music] After the attack, Kanahele and
Maugaotega went to the showers
00:33:45
and cleaned themselves off. The other inmates
that were around continued to distract
the guards
00:33:52
so that they could continue
to cover their tracks and hide their weapons. [tense music]
00:33:59
NARRATOR: The body of Nunuha
was found 30 minutes later. [tense music] Officers tried life
saving measures,
00:34:08
but it was clear he was dead. [somber music] PATRICK JOHNSON: Maugaotega
was a person of interest
00:34:18
pretty quickly
because there's video, and the actions leading up
to the homicide were on video.
00:34:26
Staff was able
to recognize both Maugaotega
and Kanahele as the two inmates who entered the cell.
00:34:34
[tense music] NARRATOR: Prison investigators
talked to Maugaotega. [somber music]
00:34:43
INVESTIGATOR: So what happened
when you went in to the room? MITI MAUGAOTEGA: I'll
talk to you first.
00:34:47
INVESTIGATOR: He was standing
or was he on the bed? MITI MAUGAOTEGA:
He's on the bed.
00:34:50
INVESTIGATOR: OK. MITI MAUGAOTEGA: I stab
him a couple of times. INVESTIGATOR: OK.
00:34:54
MITI MAUGAOTEGA: Stab
him a couple of times. You didn't want to come down. INVESTIGATOR: OK.
00:34:58
Do you know where
you stabbed him? MITI MAUGAOTEGA: In the neck.
INVESTIGATOR: In the neck.
00:35:01
MITI MAUGAOTEGA: All over.
INVESTIGATOR: OK. [tense music] PATRICK JOHNSON: Mr. Maugaotega
told police why he did it,
00:35:09
when they did the interviews. Mr. Maugaotega exact
quotes were West Side this, West
Side that, which
00:35:15
is a rival gang
that Mr. Maugaotega took as disrespect to not
only him, but the Uso family.
00:35:21
[suspenseful music] INVESTIGATOR: How long
have you been to Uso? MITI MAUGAOTEGA:
Since I came in.
00:35:29
Since I went to Uso. INVESTIGATOR: When was that?
MITI MAUGAOTEGA: 2003. INVESTIGATOR: 2003.
00:35:34
[tense music] INVESTIGATOR: I
mean, what do you-- MITI MAUGAOTEGA: Yeah. INVESTIGATOR: Do you have
a status right now or no?
00:35:41
Are you a soldier or sergeant
lieutenant something? I don't even know what
your hierarchy is.
00:35:46
What are you? MITI MAUGAOTEGA: I'm
more of a soldier boy. INVESTIGATOR: Soldier.
00:35:53
MITI MAUGAOTEGA: But I'm
my own man in that family. INVESTIGATOR: OK. OK. MITI MAUGAOTEGA: Yeah,
that Nunuha captain
00:35:58
told me what to do. [suspenseful music] DR. LINA HAJI: I
think the gang is a type of environment
that helps
00:36:13
facilitate his need to kill. I think that even if Maugaotega
hadn't been in a gang,
00:36:20
he would have been
just as violent. He would have been
just as horrific. [tense music]
00:36:26
I think this is actually
a double win for Maugaotega because he gets
to murder somebody,
00:36:32
he gets to inflict
pain on somebody. Then he gets to take credit
for it, which he enjoys.
00:36:38
And then he gets to use
the gang almost as a cover, as an excuse. [suspenseful music]
00:36:49
PATRICK JOHNSON: I became
the lead prosecutor on the case for about five
years leading up to the trial.
00:36:56
My initial thoughts
on Maugaotega, I was shocked. I could not believe that not
only had these guys killed
00:37:03
another inmate, but they
had also carved initials of the gang in the chest. I just hadn't heard
of anything like that before,
00:37:11
and so I was pretty
surprised and in shocked that someone would do
this to another person.
00:37:18
NARRATOR: Maugaotega
was charged with first-degree
murder and participating in a criminal street gang.
00:37:25
The 25-year-old
pled not guilty. Patrick and his team decided
on behalf of the state
00:37:32
to seek the death penalty. [tense music] PATRICK JOHNSON: When
the state files an allegation
00:37:39
that the state
is seeking death, there are aggravating
factors that are part of the Arizona Law
that the state has to allege.
00:37:46
And so in this case,
the aggravating factors were that this murder
had been committed
00:37:52
in furtherance of the use
of criminal street gang. That the murder was a cruel,
heinous, or depraved,
00:37:59
and that also Mr.
Maugaotega had serious offenses
for which he had been convicted in-- in Hawaii.
00:38:06
[tense music] We build our case
against Maugaotega by really going back
through his life
00:38:13
and building a case that
he was a serious, violent, chronic offender,
that was someone
00:38:18
whose behavior was escalating. You could see it escalating. [tense music] NARRATOR: Whilst awaiting
trial, Maugaotega and
00:38:28
his accomplice Kanahele,
were temporarily sent to the Florence
Correctional Center in Arizona.
00:38:35
They were housed in the same
wing and trouble soon erupted. [suspenseful music] PATRICK JOHNSON:
Part of inmates
00:38:47
daily routine is that they are
sent out to recreation cages to do recreation, so that
they have time outside.
00:38:53
So Maugaotega and Kanahele
were together. They were wrecking
together, and when the correctional officers
went to let them-- basically
00:39:04
out of their cell or bring
them back to their cells, Kanahele pushed the door open.
00:39:09
[suspenseful music] Pushing one of the correctional
officers into Maugaotega. Maugaotega started stabbing one
of the correctional officers,
00:39:18
and then Kanahele grabbed one
of the correctional officers and started stabbing him.
00:39:22
Kanahele and Kanahele stabbed
both correctional officers numerous times. [tense music]
00:39:31
NARRATOR: Fortunately,
both officers survived, and Maugaotega was later
charged with two
00:39:37
counts of aggravated assault
with a deadly weapon. [suspenseful music] DR. LINA HAJI: No one is
off limits for Maugaotega.
00:39:47
The only way to intervene
with Maugaotega is with isolation
and behavior modification.
00:39:53
And what do I mean
by behavior modification is there has to be some
sort of incentive for him
00:39:59
to change his ways. [suspenseful music] With people who are
so highly violent and
00:40:06
so highly psychopathic,
even behavior modification has its limits. And so the way
to deal with somebody
00:40:14
like Maugaotega is isolation. [tense music] NARRATOR: As the murder
of Bronson Nunuha
00:40:22
was a death penalty
case, it took years for the defense
attorneys to prepare for trial.
00:40:29
Finally, in 2021, 11
years after the killing, Maugaotega was in court. PATRICK JOHNSON: We felt
we had a strong case,
00:40:39
we felt we had strong
witnesses and we had done our homework in Hawaii. WILLIAM WALLACE:
The first time I
00:40:49
saw Maugaotega was in court
leading up to the trial, and I was surprised
with how physically big
00:40:54
he is as a person. I felt that he looks like
a very imposing, scary person. PATRICK JOHNSON: Maugaotega
made me feel angry.
00:41:05
I knew what he had done. I never saw any
remorse from him. I never saw any sorrow
from him for what he did.
00:41:13
And when I interacted with
him or saw him in court, I just felt like he did not
care about what he had done.
00:41:21
[suspenseful music] NARRATOR: The trial went
on for three months, the jury found Miti Maugaotega
guilty of first-degree murder.
00:41:33
Then they had to decide whether
he should be put to death. PATRICK JOHNSON:
We wanted the jury
00:41:39
to know that Miti
Maugaotega had no regard for the laws
of our society, that he lived
by his own code, and
00:41:48
that was a code of violence,
death, and destruction. The defendants key
argument in felony phase
00:41:55
was that Mr. Maugaotega
had a horrible childhood that included being burned,
that he had been neglected.
00:42:04
And because of that
and the circumstances of Mr. Maugaotega's
life, that he should not
00:42:10
be given the death penalty. [tense music] NARRATOR: The jury
deliberated for four days.
00:42:18
They could not reach
a unanimous verdict of death. [tense music] WILLIAM WALLACE: My reaction
to the verdict was surprised.
00:42:26
[tense music] I believe that this
crime and this person were deserving
of the death penalty.
00:42:33
NARRATOR: Maugaotega may have
narrowly escaped the death sentence, but he will die
behind bars as he received
00:42:40
another natural life sentence. [tense music] PATRICK JOHNSON: Based
on who he's been,
00:42:48
what he's done, the pain
that he's caused, the fact that he continues
to create victims.
00:42:57
In my opinion, the only
appropriate sentence for what Mr. Maugaotega
did in this case
00:43:01
was the death penalty. DR. LINA HAJI: I don't think
consequences have ever mattered
00:43:07
to him or deterred him. So the sentence was
really inconsequential, probably to him.
00:43:13
Maugaotega is going
to continue doing what he wants to do
when he wants to do it,
00:43:17
no matter what the sentence
is that he receives. [tense music] NARRATOR: Maugaotega was
sent back to Saguaro.
00:43:27
He will never be released. Just as his victims
and their families will never be released
from the pain he inflicted.
00:43:37
PATRICK JOHNSON: Maugaotega
has devastated multiple people. They are left with
the emotional toll and
00:43:45
the emotional scarring
of his actions and what he's done
to them, and what he's done to their loved ones.
00:43:51
He's created a lot
of heartache. He's hurt a lot of people. [somber music] DR. LINA HAJI: I
think Maugaotega
00:43:59
is one of the highest levels
of evil from such a young age. I mean, there was burglaries,
there were robberies,
00:44:07
there was sexual violence,
there was murder, there was overkill. That, to me, is the most
evil type of person
00:44:17
because it shows that
there are no limits as to what kind of crimes
he's willing to engage in.
00:44:24
[suspenseful music] WILLIAM WALLACE: Knowing
that Maugaotega is still kind of out there, it's
kind of scary for anyone
00:44:38
who will come in contact with
him in the prison system. DR. LINA HAJI: I can
see him continuing
00:44:45
to harm and hurt people until
he takes his very last breath. [suspenseful music]