Public defender criticizes community’s blood lust for Vanisi

Friday, Oct. 1, 1999 | 10:20 a.m.

Prosecutors pushed for the death penalty as Siaosi Vanisi's sentencing hearing opened Friday in Washoe District Court.

The same jury convicted the 29-year-old native of Tonga earlier this week of the hatchet slaying of a campus police officer at the University of Nevada, Reno.

"There's a blood lust in this community," Chief Deputy Public Defender Stephen Gregory told District Judge Connie Steinheimer on Thursday.

The portrayal of Vanisi as a "wild man" has been deliberate, he said.

"I think the district attorney bent over backward to create that image, but they didn't have to work hard because I think the media with great glee joined that effort," he said.

He pointed to a wild-eyed picture of Vanisi that appeared on the front page of the Reno Gazette-Journal the day after his conviction Monday.

"A ritual lynching on the courthouse steps would be more becoming to this community," he said.

Gregory faulted the press for not doing its own investigation of Vanisi's background, which he said would have shown Vanisi was respected by teachers and students at his California high school in San Bruno.

He was known there as a "peacemaker," completed requirements for the rank of Eagle in the Boy Scouts and excelled in student athletics, Gregory said.

Born in the Pacific Island nation of Tonga, Vanisi grew up in the San Bruno area and later moved to the Los Angeles area. He was living there when he came here for a visit, bought a $7 camping hatchet and used it to murder Sullivan.

Gregory and Deputy Public Defender Jeremy Bosler said their witnesses will include several members of Vanisi's family, including his mother and father, an aunt who raised him, brothers, sisters and cousins.

The judge did not rule Thursday on admissibility of a composite of home films showing Sullivan at play with the children at Christmas and other occasions.

Witnesses for the prosecution include Carolyn Sullivan, 42, widow of the slain officer, Sgt. George Sullivan, and mother of four of his five children.

The sentencing hearing is expected to last into next week.

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