Accused killer allegedly disliked police, whites

Friday, Sept. 24, 1999 | 10:07 a.m.

"He was gonna kill a police officer with his ax," Makeleta Kavapalu testified on Thursday.

Her testimony came in the fourth day Vanisi's trial. He is charged with first-degree murder in the January 1998 slaying of Sgt. George Sullivan, 43, a 19-year veteran of the UNR police department.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Vanisi and can introduce racism as an element during the penalty phase if Vanisi is found guilty of first-degree murder of the officer.

Several times in the days immediately preceding Sullivan's death Vanisi said he wanted to kill a white police officer, witnesses testified.

Asked if Vanisi had explained his attitude about killing white people, Kavapalu said "It was his turn to take stuff away from them by killing them. And robbing."

Another witness testified Thursday that Vanisi admitted killing the officer.

"He said he did it," Sateki Taukiuvea, 20, testified. "He just said 'I killed a cop.' "

That conversation came hours after Sullivan's body was discovered lying beside his squad car in a parking lot at the south end of the UNR campus.

Maria Louis testified that Vanisi, her uncle, made a surprise visit to Reno from Los Angeles shortly before the killing. She testified she met him at a bowling alley where she saw his hatchet, which he wore on his waist under a leather jacket.

"He wanted to kill a cop," she said Vanisi told her. "He wanted to kill a white cop because they took so much from Polynesians."

District Attorney Richard Gammick and Chief Deputy District Attorney Dave Stanton said they expect to finish their case next week. Lawyers for Vanisi have given no indication what their defense will be.

An attempt to try Vanisi in January ended in mistrial after prosecutors discovered an error in a Reno police department transcript of an interview with a witness that apparently prompted the defense contention in that trial that someone other than Vanisi could have killed Sullivan.