Second trial begins for man accused of UNR hatchet slaying

Scott Sonner

Thursday, Sept. 23, 1999 | 9:57 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - The man accused of the hatchet slaying of a campus police officer repeatedly told friends and relatives in the days before that he wanted to kill a cop, prosecutors say.

Siaosi Vanisi, 29, who stalked University of Nevada police Sgt. George Sullivan, told a cousin about the murder afterwards and disposed of a $7 camping hatchet with traces of Sullivan's blood, the jury was told as the trial opened Wednesday.

It is expected to last two to three weeks.

"This man was a hunter," Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick said in opening remarks to the jury. "You will hear witnesses say that he said as many as 10 times that he wanted to kill a cop. It almost becomes a mantra."

Vanisi, a native of Tonga whose first trial ended in a mistrial in January, is accused of hacking Sullivan to death as he sat doing paperwork in his patrol car about 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 13, 1998.

The first trial was invalidated when the prosecution discovered a key word in a witness interview had been improperly transcribed by the Reno Police Department.

In addition to first-degree murder, Vanisi is charged in pair of armed robberies he allegedly committed the next day with Sullivan's .45-caliber service revolver.

The killing on the university campus touched off a massive manhunt. Two days later Vanisi was arrested after a shoot-out with police at a cousin's apartment in Salt Lake City.

"He tells one of those cousins all the details," Gammick said Wednesday. "He talks about seeing Sgt. Sullivan and putting the sneak on Sgt. Sullivan. He talks about hitting him with the hatchet again and again and again and again and again.

"Then when he is down, he stomps on him. On top of everything else, he talks about being happy about doing it," he said.

Defense lawyers said they would wait until later to make their opening arguments. They earlier requested to be replaced with other lawyers but Washoe District Judge Connie Steinheimer refused. The Nevada Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.

The attorneys say they cannot ethically continue to represent him because they and Vanisi have incompatible approaches to his defense. They have declined to provide details, citing confidentiality rules.

Prosecutors warned prospective jurors this week that the evidence would include gruesome pictures.

The first witness called Wednesday was Ellen Clark, a pathologist who conducted Sullivan's autopsy. She described a dozen autopsy photos for jurors. One of the women jurors shook her head gently back and forth at the sight of them.

Sullivan died from multiple injuries to his skull and brain, a total of more than 20 blows, Dr. Clark said.

Sullivan, a 19-year veteran of the force who is survived by his widow and five children, also suffered cuts on his hand where he apparently tried to defend himself against the attack, she said.

Gammick said a fellow campus police officer would testify how he saw someone fitting Vanisi's description crouching in the dark near the area where Sullivan was killed about 30 minutes before the attack.

Witnesses will tell how Vanisi later took a jacket, gloves and hatchet to a house in neighboring Sparks, before later fleeing to Salt Lake City, Gammick said.

"The jacket, gloves and hatchet all have the blood of Sgt. Sullivan on them," Gammick said.

A half-dozen uniformed deputies and several other plainclothes officers in the audience are providing tight security at the trial.