Former Tongan Crip Gang member walks free

Courts • He testified against other TCG members at trial.

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

One former member of the Tongan Crip Gang was allowed to walk free from the U.S. District Courthouse on Monday, while another will have to wait until December to hear his fate.

Latutaofieikii Fakaosiula, who last month testified at trial against eight of his former associates, was given credit for the time he had served since turning himself over to police for his role in a 2008 robbery and was freed.

Judge Tena Campbell called the 22-year-old Fakaosiula's involvement as a lookout during the planned robbery of a Herriman Walmart "an isolated incident." Fakaosiula admitted to police that he milled around the store with a grocery cart, waiting to signal a carload of TCG members to rob the store's cash room.

"I really didn't need the money. I was hanging around with the wrong crowd," Fakaosiula said during the September trial.

Also on Monday, Campbell denied former TCG member David Kamoto's request to be released from custody pending his Dec. 1 sentencing.

Kamoto pleaded guilty in state court to a 2005 robbery. At last month's trial, a jury acquitted Kamoto of every other crime with which he had been charged at the federal level.

Kamoto's attorney, Scott C. Williams, had hoped Kamoto would be released before then, having already served 73 months for the robbery.

Campbell, however, said she remained concerned about Kamoto's alleged involvement in a 2007 homicide while he was temporarily out of custody, even though he had been acquitted of all charges related to the death.

"I think it's time for you to get out and about and get on with it," Campbell said. "But I want to make sure you're not going to get out and about and on with the TCG."

afalk@sltrib.com

Twitter: @aaronfalk