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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah judge declined Wednesday to dismiss a criminal case against a Taylorsville man charged with firing eight times at a car driving away from him, dismissing the man's claims that he was acting in self-defense.
One woman was paralyzed as a result of the shooting.
Faalae So'o, 38, is charged with eight counts of felony discharge of a firearm accusing him of shooting at a car that was driving away. One of the counts is a first-degree felony, one a second-degree felony, and the rest are third-degree felonies.
Third District Judge William Kendall said he did not dismiss the case under a new Utah self-defense law because So'o told police that the eight shots were warning shots. At least one bullet entered a home in the neighborhood. Additionally, at the point the shots were fired, Kendall said there was not an imminent threat to So'o or his family.
"Warning shots are not justified under Utah law. There is no justification to use a deadly weapon, fired in proximity to other individuals, as a warning … and, at this point there was no imminent threat to the defendant. These individuals were driving away at a rapid pace," the judge said.
According to earlier court testimony, a group of people in two cars got out and began vandalizing a car in a driveway next to So'o's home on July 26, 2020, while he and his sisters were outside. After a man came toward him with something he said he thought could be a gun, So'o told his sisters to go inside, then he pulled out a gun and the four to five people got back into the car and began to leave the neighborhood.
So'o and witnesses have said that the car stopped, drove a little further, then stopped again.
"(So'o) said the brake lights were on when the cars were stopped, but he was worried they may back up. (He) said he aimed at the tires/back of the car and fired his gun," according to a police affidavit. Two women, both 18, were hit and injured.
The ability to have a case dismissed by a judge because the actions are determined to be self-defense is new, after a state law that took effect in 2021.
At the initial justification hearing which was held in December, the judge ruled that So'o's attorney, Christine Seaman, had shown enough evidence that her client acted in self-defense to raise the standard that the prosecution needed to reach to clear and convincing evidence.
This standard is higher than the typical standard of probable cause a case needs to reach to go to trial, but it is lower than the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt that is used in a trial and needs to be reached in order to determine someone is guilty.
At the hearing on Wednesday, Kendall said that the prosecutor, Melanie Serassio, met this burden and showed that there was no evidence that So'o had a reasonable belief that he was in danger when he fired the shots. Serassio argued that So'o did not shoot because he felt that he was in danger, but because he was angry and upset that kids were vandalizing the neighbor's vehicle.
The prosecutors said the victim who was paralyzed after being hit did not feel the bullet until she had heard all eight shots, and they were almost out of the complex.
"If even conceivably one shot was justified … eight shots were not justified," Serassio said.
Seaman said her client's actions were reasonable because So'o was defending himself and his family. She said witnesses heard noises that could have been shots from a smaller gun earlier and So'o and his sisters could have been in danger. She said there is no way of knowing what would have happened if So'o had not taken action.
"He didn't put himself in this situation. He didn't do anything to create this threat, to create the terror that was going on. He was simply trying to get rid of the threat and to deal with it the best that he could," Seaman said.
Another hearing in the case is scheduled in early June.
