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SALT LAKE CITY -- Police officers have arrested a fifth person in connection with the 2009 shooting death of Krystal Flores, an innocent bystander killed in a gang shooting.
Nitokalisi Fonua, 27, was arrested around midnight Wednesday for investigation of murder, aggravated burglary and being a restricted person in possession of a firearm, Salt Lake police detective Patrick Wilkinson said. He cited a probable cause statement that says Fonua had a rifle inside the home on the night when Flores was killed.
Flores was attending a house party at 1309 Stewart Street on July 19, 2009, when she was shot. Witnesses said she was asleep on the couch at the time. She died after spending two weeks in a coma.
Four arrests were made in the case about one year later. In July 2010, Pailate Lomu, 21, was charged with murder and aggravated burglary, first-degree felonies, and Shannon Moala, 32, was charged with obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony. In early August, Alexander Bloomfield, 30, and George Angilau, 20, were both charged with murder and aggravated burglary, first-degree felonies.
According to a jail booking statement, two Polynesian males entered the home armed with a handgun and a rifle. One of the men discharged the rifle into the back of Flores' head.
"Mr. Fonua ... was identified as the person who had the rifle immediately after the shooting," the document states.
Wilkinson said detectives have interviewed around 30 people in connection with the shooting. It took time to make the arrests because most of those interviewed were not cooperative, he said.
"(Detectives) continued to pursue the case until they felt they'd caught everybody involved in the case. They've been investigating it since it occurred," Wilkinson said.
According to charging documents, Angilau and Lomu met up with Moala, Bloomfield and Fonua "to retaliate for a prior shooting against" Lomu. Angilau fired shots at a rival gang member while acting as a lookout, the charges state.
Moala testified in a court hearing that Lomu, Fonua and Angilau are all associated with the predominantly Tongan, West Valley City-based gang the Baby Regulators. She said they left a West Valley party with a gun July 19. She said she assumed they were going to retaliate against members of the rival Tongan Crips gang for a drive-by shooting at Lomu's home a few weeks earlier.
Moala testified she and Bloomfield got into her vehicle and she fell asleep, awaking to the sound of gunshots soon after. She said the pair picked up Fonua, who she said had blood on his arm and shirt.
Witnesses who were hosting the party Flores was attending testified at a court hearing for Lomu and Bloomfield and said two men entered their home that night armed with guns. Two witnesses said one man was wearing a white shirt, the other a "baby blue" shirt and that the man in the white shirt was holding a handgun, while the other was carrying a rifle.
Both of them also identified Bloomfield as one of the men inside the home that night. They had not identified the second man.
Moala testified that she distinctly remembered Fonua wearing a baby blue T-shirt the night of the shooting, because it was one she had just purchased on a trip. Prosecutors would not elaborate earlier this week as to why Fonua had not been charged in the case.
Wilkinson said detectives will turn over all of their evidence on Fonua to the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office for consideration of official charges.
E-mail: emorgan@desnews.com
