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True Crime Documentary - Miti Maugaotega Jr. · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: In the United States of America, some of the world's
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: most dangerous and violent prisoners are locked behind bars. One
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: of the worst is Meaty Mahanga Tanga.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: He can't be everplaced with any other human being because
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: he has shown time and time again that he's a murderer,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: a cold blooded murderer.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: See in the time, Okay, starving copy times you didn't
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: want to come along?
• 0:35
  Speaker 4: Do you know where you're stabbing them?
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: At old, at just seventeen years old, he robbed and
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: sexually assaulted a fifty five year old woman.
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: The pistol whipter into compliance.
• 0:52
  Speaker 5: It is more about the power and the control and
• 0:56
  Speaker 5: exerting his will over a vulnerable victim.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: His level of criminal behavior quickly escalated with attempted murder.
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: A second shot is fired and that second shot hits
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: him in his upper left chest five feet away, so
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: we're talking about point blank range.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: If he had not been caught, he probably would have
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: shot somebody else or killed someone.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Even locked behind bars, Manga Tenga is a tornado of
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: aggression that is difficult to contain.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Maga tenget immediately ran out of his jail cell, found
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: another inmate that he wanted to injure and decided to
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: beat that person to a pulp, cracking his skull, ripping
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: off his top lip, and injuring him so severely.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: He violently attacked four more inmates, then went on to
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: brutally kill a fifth.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: He's an extremely dangerous individual and when he is an
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: opportunity to harm or to kill somebody, he takes that opportunity.
• 2:08
  Speaker 5: I think Muwanga Tega is one of the highest levels
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: of evil.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Sowarro Correctional Center houses around two thousand inmates. More than
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: half of those are from Hawaii.
• 2:50
  Speaker 6: The Tomorrow Prison Facility is a maximum security facility. It
• 2:53
  Speaker 6: houses some of the most dangerous prisoners from Hawaii. Most
• 2:58
  Speaker 6: inmates are there for very serious crimes, lengthy prison sentence,
• 3:01
  Speaker 6: violent crimes.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: It's made for the highest security inmates in the United States.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: It's a very dangerous facility.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: The Swirl Facility does have a large USO presence.
• 3:19
  Speaker 6: Uso means brother in the Samoan language. It's a prison
• 3:24
  Speaker 6: gang that is formed for protection for Samoan and Hawaiian inmates.
• 3:29
  Speaker 6: The USO prison gang is different than traditional prison gangs.
• 3:33
  Speaker 6: There's no real rules other than you have to be
• 3:36
  Speaker 6: from Hawaii. It doesn't matter what type of crime you've committed,
• 3:40
  Speaker 6: you can still join the USO Prison Gang.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: One of the most notorious USSO gang members is Miti
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Mahonga Tenga Junior.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: He is one of the most violent and dangerous inmates
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: that I've dealt with in my career.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: He hates society, he hates people. He tries to kill
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: them when he killed.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: Me.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Team Mahomga Tanga Junior was born September twenty ninth, nineteen
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: eighty five in American Samoa, an island just over two
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: thousand miles off the coast of Hawaii.
• 4:44
  Speaker 6: His father was part of local royal family on American Samowa.
• 4:48
  Speaker 6: His grandfather was like a chief or a leader of
• 4:50
  Speaker 6: the family.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: His parents divorced at at a pretty young age, and
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: he went to live with his grandparents.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Despite his parents apparently being largely absent from his life,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Meeti was raised in a loving household.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: He was his grandfather's favorite. He was someone that his
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: grandfather looked at as someone who could possibly be the
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: leader of the family.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: When Meti was just four years of age, a tragic
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: accident left him scarred for life.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: He was playing with some cousins around the fire and
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: one of the cousins kicked a bottle that had some
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: kind of gasoline and basically the fire exploded and it
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: exploded on to him.
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: He suffered from third degree burns and scars on his
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: body traumatized him.
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: He was confined to a medical facility for a period
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: of six months. He could have experienced depression, anxiety. He
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: could have felt different than his peers, very isolated, and
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: it also could have resulted in long term mental and
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: emotional damage.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: That was further devastation from Meti. When the grandfather he
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: was so close to passed away.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: His grandmother decided to move him from American Simoa to
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: Hawaii around seven years old. She did that because she
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: knew that he needed special treatment for his burns. His
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: grandmother believed that there may be better opportunity for him
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: in Hawaii than he had in American Samoa.
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: Hawaii enjoys a lower crime rate than other states. Geographically
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: were separated from the mainland US, and so the ability
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: of people to get in and out, in particular criminals,
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: I guess in this case is harder. Right, They can't
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: cross state lines that easily. You got to go by
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: a plane or a ship. The other part, of course,
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: has to do with our cultural norms. We have strong
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: family structures, we have respect for elders, we have people
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: that feel a responsibility to the community.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Mahonga Tenga settled well, but around the age of twelve
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: he began to change.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: He started hanging out with friends that probably were not
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: the best influence and he probably wasn't the best influence
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: on them. He started using drugs, He started skipping school.
• 7:51
  Speaker 6: He started engaging in criminal activity at a fairly young
• 7:54
  Speaker 6: age thirteen fourteen years old, burglaries, thefts.
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: There is a likelihood that he probably met criteria for
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: what we call conduct disorder, which is essentially antisocial personality
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: disorder in children, aggression, deceitfulness, manipulation, a complete disregard for
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: societal norms.
• 8:19
  Speaker 7: So he's already on.
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: The path to showing this kind of affinity for criminality.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Meeti Mahonga Tanga was so prolific in his lawlessness that
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety nine, aged just fourteen, the Hawaiian authorities
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: banished him back to his homeland of American Samoa. He
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: was forbidden to return to Hawaii until he was eighteen.
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: It would have to be something serious enough that the
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: judgment would order this, you know, sending him back to
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: American Samoa. Sometimes judges do that because they feel that
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: out of their cultural environment, they're more likely to commit crimes.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Over the next four years, not much as known about
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Mahonga Tenga's life back in American Samoa. Then, in April
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: two thousand and three, Mahonga Tenga violates the order against
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: him and illegally re enters Hawaii. He was just five
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: months away from turning eighteen. Within days of his return,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: he was back to illegally entering people's homes with force.
• 9:34
  Speaker 6: He committed these robberies with a weapon. He would terrorize
• 9:38
  Speaker 6: regular residential neighborhoods, very middle class areas. Violent crime isn't
• 9:43
  Speaker 6: very apparent in Hawaii, so these types of crimes were
• 9:47
  Speaker 6: very shocking to people.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Mahonga Tenga spiraled at the drug addiction and would steal watches, jewelry,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: anything of value, take it to a pawnshop, and use
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: the cash defeed his habit. One evening, Mahougutenga's crimes would
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: take a darker turn when he broke into the home
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: of a fifty five year old woman.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: She was asleep. It was around eleven o'clock.
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: He was rummaging through her dresser. He noticed that she
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: was there asleep, so he decides to wake her up.
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: He demanded money from her, but then he also sexually
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: assaulted her. She tried to get away from him, but
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: what he did was he pistol whipped her into compliance.
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: The fact that mang Tega decided to sexually assault her
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: as opposed to just robbing her again shose that he
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: has this antisocial personality where it's not about the robbery,
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: it is more about the power and the control and
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: exerting his will over a vulnerable victim. This also has
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: a rage component. He's clearly filled with anger. He's taking
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: this rage out on a completely vulnerable, innocent victim, and
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: there was really no need for this kind of gratuitous violence.
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: So to me, that tells me that Muongtega was probably
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: enjoying inflicting pain on his victim.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Maga Tanga was certainly escalating in violence as he was
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: getting older, and the danger for the community was that
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: not only was he getting older, but he was getting stronger.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: He was getting bigger, and he was getting more bold.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Just three days after he committed the sexual assaults and robbery.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Mahonga Tanga would strike again.
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: It's daytime. Mister Kowmodo came home civilian electrical engineer. He
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: worked for the military. He came home on his motorcycle.
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: He gets into the house right away. He notices something's wrong.
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: He sees these two Japanese dolls. They're on the floor.
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: As he was noticing these dolls, that's when Manga Tenga
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: came toward him from the kitchen. He points the forty
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: five colt at Cawmodo and he demands give me a wallet,
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: give me your money, and Cowmotive complies, and then he
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: further says, well, I want you to show me things
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: that you got down in the bedroom down the stairs.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: kW Moto starts going down the stairs. He takes a
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: couple of steps and then he stops. This guy's gonna
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: kill me when I get down there. It doesn't matter
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: whether I cooperate him with or not. So he comes
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: back up the stairs and Manga taking surprise and Mango
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: taking fires the gun. But when he fires the gun,
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: it goes click. The gun had jammed or misfired. Something
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: had happened. He tries to reset the gun because Caw
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: Moto's thinking, I'm gonna see if I can wrestle the gun.
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: So he's still approaching him, and from a distance of
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: about five feet, a second shot is fired, and that
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: second shot hits him in his upper left chest five
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: feet away, so we're talking about point blank range.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Mahonga Tanga fled the house, leaving Kawamoto for dead.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: Mister Komoto had a gunshot wounded the chest. It was
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: about a centimeter from his heart.
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: He gets outside of his house and he's able to
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: get to his neighbor's front door. The neighbor comes out
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: and she sees him on the ground in front of
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: her door and this big pie sized bloodstain on his shirt.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: But he's still able to tell her called a police
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: call nine one one.
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: What's interesting is that, you know, he went to rob
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: this victim and then he was confronted by the victim.
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: And it seems that being confronted by a man is
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: very different than having been confronted by a woman. And
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: with the prior female victim, he exerts power and control
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: and anger with the sexual assault and the pistol whipping.
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: With the man, he seems to be a lot more
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: fearful intimidated and less in control, and so he resorts
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: to shooting him.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: While forty three year old Eric Kawamoto was rushed to
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: the hospital, his attacker, seventeen year old Mahongadanga, was on
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: the run.
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: By that time, police had been alerted. There was a
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: description of Mango Tanga that was given by Kalmodo and
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: the neighbor that was used to help to track and
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: identify him as he was going along the route. As
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: he was escaping.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Out fifty minutes after shooting Eric Kawamoto, Mahonga Tanga was
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: being hunted down.
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: There's an officer that's pursuing him that at one point
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: when he's on the Hawaii Baptist Academy grounds, he sees
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: him toss the gun. He was trying to scale a
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: fence and I think he falls off of the fence.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Mahonga Tanga was captured.
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: They found drugs, They found pipes. There was cocaine, there
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: was meth residue and the pipes. His pockets were bulging
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: with jewelry and the Julie turned out to be jewelry
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: that was from the Klamodo home, jewelry owned by Calmodo's wife.
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: Some by Cala Moda's wife's mother. He had plundered the
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: Kalamodo home.
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: I don't think he would have stopped until he was arrested.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: He kept committing crimes, He kept escalating crimes, and if
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: he had had not been caught for shooting mister Comoto,
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: he probably would have shot somebody else or killed someone.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: Crimes like this don't happen often in Hawaii, and it
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: was a crime spree that the media really caught onto it,
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: and I think it really just shocked and shook the
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: community in Hawaii kind of to its coret.
• 17:23
  Speaker 6: It's very shocking to know that a seventeen year old
• 17:26
  Speaker 6: is capable of all this violence.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Mahonga Tenga was charged with second degree attempted murder, first
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: degree sexual assault, five counts of burglary, four counts of robbery,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: second degree assault, as well as drugs and weapon charges.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: He pled not guilty despite only being seventeen years of age.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: The judge decided he would be tried as an adult
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: given the severity of the crimes.
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: Even though he's seventeen years of age, He's a very
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: dangerous individual and it warrants being treated as an adult
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: with regards to sentencing. And the crime statey faces mischarges.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: On February twentieth, two thousand and four, the trial began
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: by pleading not guilty. Mahaunga Tanga forces victims to testify
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: in court.
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: I'm the chief of staff for the Department of Prosecuting
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: Attorney here in Honolulu, Hawaii. The one moment I think
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: that really stands out is the day that Eric Commodo
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: actually testifies. Man has incredible guys just standing your ground,
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: protecting your home, confronting this individual and not letting him
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: control you. The woman who was raped, she talked at
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: length about persistent nightmares over the incident, and she also
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: talked about a grandson you know, who used to come
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: over to visit her. He felt so unsafe by being
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: there that he would carry a baseball bat for his
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: own protection. And when you're going to people's home, you're
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: you're invading someone's home, the sanctity of their home. You're
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: not going to feel safe for a long time. You
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: feel violated. That is the effect that it has on victims.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: After a seven day trial, the jury found me Ti
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Mahana Tanka guilty of all charges on seventeen, two thousand
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: and four. He was sentenced to life without parole for
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: shooting Eric Kawamoto. For his other crimes, he was given
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: ten life sentences. At the time, he had been given
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: the longest prison sentence in Hawaii's history.
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: I don't recall him being very remorseful. He apologized in
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: court to Cowmotos and to the other victims, but I
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: don't ever think that he really truly was sincere when
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: he did that. For one thing, when he apologized to them,
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: he did so with his backfacing them. I want to
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: say that he just kind of was going through the motions,
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: you know, in an apology to make himself look good.
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: I don't believe that he was.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: The thing about his sentence in Hawaii is that he
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: was a juvenile tried as an adult for the crimes
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: he committed. But it was unusual for a juvenile to
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: be given such a lengthy sentence.
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: This was the longest prison sentence handed down in Hawaiian history,
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: and so I think that this might have actually.
• 21:29
  Speaker 7: Inflated his ego.
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: Especially because he was so young. The brain isn't fully
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: developed at the age of seventeen eighteen, and so a
• 21:38
  Speaker 5: lot of the times you see young offenders not really
• 21:41
  Speaker 5: fully processed the fact that they've just been sentenced to
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: so much time, or that they're likely going to die
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: in prison. They're almost dismissive of it. So for somebody
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: like Montega I suspect that a life sentence may have
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: actually been something that he wore as a badge of honor.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Mahonga Tanga started his sentence in the Hawaiian jail. He
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: quickly showed he would be a problematic prisoner. In January
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: two thousand and five, he was identified as being responsible
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: for an attack on a fellow inmate. The Honga Tango
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: was transferred to the mainland and to Tallahatchie Prison. This
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: high security prison has a capacity to hold approximately two thousand,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: five hundred inmates.
• 22:39
  Speaker 6: There's a large population of USO gang members in the
• 22:43
  Speaker 6: Tallahatchie Prison facility in Mississippi because the Hawaiians are outnumbered
• 22:51
  Speaker 6: within the prison system there, so they formed that prison
• 22:54
  Speaker 6: gang for their own protection.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: The USO family has been as to wish for over
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: twenty years. They operated more in criminal activity. They're engaged
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: in felony activity. They commit acts of violence their purposes
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: to benefit the members of the USO family while they're
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: serving their time in prison.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Mahonga Tanga is believed to have joined the prison gang
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: early on in his sentence.
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: For somebody like Montega, he was a perfect candidate to
• 23:30
  Speaker 5: become a gang member. Joining a gang is a perfect
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: environment for him to further his desire to choose violence
• 23:37
  Speaker 5: and to inflict harm on people, because gang's their primary
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: role is to continue committing crimes in prison, So Montego
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: would have likely been allured by this. It's an opportunity
• 23:48
  Speaker 5: for more power and more control. He could climb the ranks,
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: so this could have been viewed as a challenge for him.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Mahonga Tanga quickly racked up offenses.
• 24:00
  Speaker 6: Marga Tanka's prison record in Mississippi is full of disciplinary infractions, fighting,
• 24:06
  Speaker 6: possession of weapons, and assaults.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: After a vicious attack on another inmate, he was deemed
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: so volatile that there was only one way to deal
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: with him.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: Maga Tango has put on what's called administrative hold, where
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: he's not allowed to be around any other prisoners. But
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: the first opportunity to get out of that particular situation,
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: he took it.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: A prison guard mistakenly pushed the button that released all
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: of the cell doors. Mahonga Tanga's first thought was blood.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: Magatanga immediately ran out of his jail cell, found another
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: inmate that he wanted to injure, and decided to beat
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: that person to a pulp, cracking his skull, ripping off
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: his top lip, and injuring him so severely. That's how
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: violent Margatanga was.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: The prisoner whom Mahonga Tanga attacked was left with permanent
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: brain damage.
• 25:18
  Speaker 5: Montega has already shown the world that he is escalating
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: and so of course his attacks have to become more brutal,
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: more horrific.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Mahongol Tanga appeared to be used by the USO gang
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: as a weapon of mass destruction. It wasn't long before
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: he struck again.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: Mister Mangtega and several other inmates assaulted inmate Aalajandro Steel.
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: Mister Steel was found by correction officers laying on the floor.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: He was conscious, but he had a broken jaw.
• 26:05
  Speaker 7: For him, this is almost becoming like his job.
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: He doesn't seem to have any kind of remorse or
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: any ability to understand the value of human life. It's
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: giving him a reputation, which is something to be desired
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: within a gang, within.
• 26:23
  Speaker 7: A Correctional facility.
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: So he's continuing on with this because there really are
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: no negative consequences to him committing these heinous, egregious acts
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: on other inmates.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: He's an extremely dangerous individual and when he is an
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: opportunity to harm or to kill somebody, he takes that opportunity.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: He hates society, he hates people, and he tries to
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: kill them when he can.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Mahan Go Tenga's behavior at Tallahatchie was so disruptive that
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: he was moved from Mississippi to a prison in Arizona.
• 27:13
  Speaker 6: In the Suora facility, there's approximately one thousand Hawaiian inmates.
• 27:19
  Speaker 6: Mangatanga was part of a ship program. Ship its special
• 27:25
  Speaker 6: housing unit where they put all different types of gang
• 27:29
  Speaker 6: members all in the same prison pod system and house
• 27:33
  Speaker 6: them all together.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: One of Mahana Tanga's fellow Hawaiian inmates was twenty six
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: year old Bronson Nanwha.
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: Bronson Knewha was a Hawaiian inmate. He was originally from
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: the island of Maui. He was sent to Swaro Prison
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: for property crimes. He had burglary conviction and auto theft.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: Mister the newhaw was scheduled to be released within a
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: few months. His aspirations were to go back to Mali
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: and be with his son. His son was around five
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: years old and that was what he wanted to do
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: when he got out, was go back and be a
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: father to his son.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Although n nu How was a fellow Hawaiian, he was
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: in a different prison gang to Mahanga Tanga.
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: The West Side Gang is another gang from Hawaii. They
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: are classified as a security threat group by the Hawaiian
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: Department of Public Safety, West Side and USO. They house together,
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: they eat together, go to recreation together. So they're not
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: rivals that are always fighting with each other, but they
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: are rivals. The new haw was just a soldier within
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: the West Side Gang. He did not have a leadership role.
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: He was just a member.
• 29:05
  Speaker 6: It appeared as though nanujas being targeted by Mangatanga. Mangatanga
• 29:09
  Speaker 6: didn't like Bronson Nanuja.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: Maga Tanga started picking on him. At one point at
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: a basketball court in early twenty ten, he decided to
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: punch Bronson in the face.
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: Manga Taga he wasn't content with these two gangs civilly
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: existing together.
• 29:32
  Speaker 7: He is like a bully.
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: He goes up to Nunuha, and he incites violence. He
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: seemingly punches him in the face for no real reason
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: other than some kind of tiff on a basketball court.
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: Manga Taga is looking for trouble. He's looking to cause separation.
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: He wants violence, he wants problems, he wants conflicts.
• 29:54
  Speaker 7: He thrives off of that.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: In contrast, so how didn't appear to want any trouble.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: He tried to keep away from his antagonists. Mahanga Tanga.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: We knew that he had not gone out to recreation,
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: He had not left his cell. It was abnormal. We
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: don't know whether or not nuh was actually sick or
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: if he was scared of Magaateega doing something to him.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Mahana Tanga was not a lone warrior. He had a
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: right hand man.
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: Micah Conna Haley is another USO member. He was housed
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: in the same pod as the new and Magitega. Micah
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: Conna Haley was serving a life with the possibility of
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: parole sentence for a murder in Hawaii.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Mahana Tanga wanted Bronson a new hat debt and enlisted
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Nahli to help. Why n Knuha was marked for death
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: was never known making shanks. They waited for their moment.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: Magateega and Conna Haley knew the schedules of the correctional
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: officers that were working. Prison is an environment that runs
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: on schedules and inmates noda and so inmates know when
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: they have opportunities to commit crimes.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Eight days after Mahanga Tanga punched Nunuha, that opportunity came.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Mahonga Tanga and kune Hell grabbed their shanks and headed
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: to the new how Sell, it appeared he knew they
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: were coming.
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: N Nuha was scared and the nuh was on his bunk.
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: He saw them come in and he curled up, probably
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: hoping that his worst nightmare wasn't coming true. He did
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: not fight back. He tried to protect himself. They both
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: had shanks, and that's when Margitega began stabbing. Connor Haley
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: was also stabbing. To know how, Margitega said that he
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: dragged the new Haw off the bed, where the new
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: Ha hit the floor. The two men were stabbing the
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: new Haw over and over again, but Margitega and ready
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: to make sure that knuhw was dead, so he stomped
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: on his neck, breaking his neck, causing him to die,
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: and that's when Margitega carved USSO in the new Hawa's chest.
• 32:47
  Speaker 5: He stabs him one hundred and forty times, which is
• 32:50
  Speaker 5: considered overkill.
• 32:52
  Speaker 7: I don't think he needed a reason.
• 32:54
  Speaker 5: He didn't need a reason really in his past crimes.
• 32:58
  Speaker 5: This really shows us that he's continuing to escalate, but
• 33:02
  Speaker 5: he's continuing to act this way because he actually enjoys violence.
• 33:07
  Speaker 5: He enjoys the act of violence. He enjoys the act
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: of inflicting and causing harm to other human beings.
• 33:19
  Speaker 6: Magatanga carved his gang name USO in Bronson Nanuja's chest
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: as a message to send to the other West Side
• 33:27
  Speaker 6: gang members that you're not to antagonize the USO gang.
• 33:32
  Speaker 6: In my years of prosecuting, I've never seen anything like this.
• 33:41
  Speaker 6: After the attack, Conna Haley and Magatanga went to the
• 33:45
  Speaker 6: showers and cleaned themselves off. The other inmates that were
• 33:49
  Speaker 6: around continued to distract the guards so that they could
• 33:53
  Speaker 6: continue to cover their tracks and hide their weapons.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Of them to knew how it was found. Thirty minutes later,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: officers tried life saving measures, but it was clear he
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: was dead.
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: Market Tega was a person of interests pretty quickly. Because
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: there's a video and the actions leading up to the
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: homicide were on video. Staff was able to recognize both
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: Monketega and Connor Haley as the two inmates who entered
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: the cell.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Prison investigators talked to Mahanga Tanga.
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: So what happened when you went into the room that's
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: acting first? Okay?
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: He was standing?
• 34:48
  Speaker 5: Or is he on the bason there?
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: Okay?
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: Step times?
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: Stabbing copet time you didn't want to come along? Okay?
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: Do you know where's where you stabbed him?
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: At in the neck and the neck all over Okay.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: Mister Markitega told the police why he did it. When
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: they did the interviews, mister Markeitega's exact quotes were west
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: side this, west side that which is a rival game
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: that mister Margitega took as disrespect to not only him
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: but the us SO family. How long have you been
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: Lucca and us seen sid kV ever? Anything?
• 35:29
  Speaker 6: That went to again?
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: Paulas when was the two Bellion three two thousand three?
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: I mean, what do you do you have in your
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: Do you have a status right now or no? Are
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: you a soldier, sergeant, lieutenant something?
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: I don't even know what your hierarchy.
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: Is what are you?
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: I'm a long a soldier about soldier.
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: I'm my own man in that frond okay, okay, didn't
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: no on Lieutenant Captain telling me what to do.
• 36:11
  Speaker 5: I think the gang is a type of environment that
• 36:13
  Speaker 5: helps facilitate his need to kill. I think that even
• 36:19
  Speaker 5: if Mahongotega hadn't been in a gang, he would have
• 36:21
  Speaker 5: been just as violent. He would have been just as horrific.
• 36:27
  Speaker 5: I think this is actually a double win for Malangotega,
• 36:30
  Speaker 5: because he gets to murder somebody, he gets to inflict
• 36:34
  Speaker 5: pain on somebody, then it gets to take credit for it,
• 36:37
  Speaker 5: which he enjoys, and then he gets to use the
• 36:40
  Speaker 5: gang almost as a cover as an excuse.
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: I became the lead prosecutor on the case for about
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: five years leading up to the drap. My initial thoughts
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: on Magaitego now show. I not believe that not only
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: had these guys killed another inmate, but they had also
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: carved initials of the gang in the chest. I just
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: hadn't heard of anything like that before, and so I
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: was pretty surprised and shocked that someone would do this
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: to another person.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: Mahonga Tanga was charged with first degree murder and participating
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: in a criminal streak gang. The twenty five year old
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: pled not guilty. Patrick and his team decided on behalf
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: of the state to seek the death penalty.
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: When the state files an allegation that the state is
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: seeking death, there are aggravating factors that are part of
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: theirs on the law that the state has to allege,
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: and so in this case, the aggravating factors were that
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: this murder had been committed in furtherance of the USO
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: criminal street gang, that the murder was a cruel, heinous,
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: or depraved, and that also mister Magtega had serious offenses
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: for which he had been convicted in in Hawaii. We
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: built our case against Mangatega by really going back through
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: his life and building a case that he was a serious, violent,
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: chronic offender, that was someone who behavior was escalating. You
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: could see it escalating.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: Whilst the waiting trial, Mahoga Tenga and his accomplice Kunahelle
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: were temporarily sent to the Florence Correctional Center in Arizona.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: They were housed in the same wing and trouble soon erupted.
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: Part of inmates daily routine is that they are sent
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: out to recreation cages to do recreations that they have
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: time outside. So Magtega and Conna Haley were together. They
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: were wrecking together, and and when the correctional officers went
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: to let them basically out of their rec celler bring
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: them back to their cells, Conna Haley pushed the door open,
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: pushing one of the correctional officers into Margitega. Margitega started
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: stabbing one of the correctional officers, and then Conna Haley
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: grabbed one of the correctional officers and started stabbing him.
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: Margitega and Conna Haley a stab both correctional officers numerous times.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: Fortunately, both officers survived and Mahnga Tanga was later charged
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
• 39:43
  Speaker 5: No one is off limits for Mwangataga. The only way
• 39:48
  Speaker 5: to intervene with Mawangtega is with isolation and behavior modification.
• 39:53
  Speaker 7: And what do I mean by behavior.
• 39:55
  Speaker 5: Modification is there has to be some sort of incentive
• 39:58
  Speaker 5: for him to change his ways with people who were
• 40:05
  Speaker 5: so highly violent and so highly psychopathic. Even behavior modification
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: has its limits, and so the way to deal with
• 40:14
  Speaker 5: somebody like Muwanga Tega is isolation.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: As the murder of Bronson n Nuhaw was the death
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: penalty case, it took years for the defense attorneys to
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: prepare for trial. Finally, in twenty twenty one, eleven years
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: after the killing, Mahonga Tenga was in court.
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: We felt we had a strong case. We felt we
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: had strong witnesses, and we had done our homework in Hawaii.
• 40:48
  Speaker 6: The first time I saw Magatanga was in court leading
• 40:51
  Speaker 6: up to the trial, and I was surprised with how
• 40:53
  Speaker 6: physically big he is as a person, I felt that
• 40:58
  Speaker 6: he looks like a very was in scary person.
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: Magitega made me feel angry. I knew what he had done.
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: I never saw any remorse from him. I never saw
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: any sorrow from him for what he did, and when
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: I interacted with him or saw him in court, I
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: just felt like he did not care about what he
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: had done.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: The trial went on for three months. The jury found
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: Miti Mahangatanga guilty of first degree murder. Then they had
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: to decide whether you should be put to death.
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: We wanted the jury to know that Mindi Magaitega had
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: no regard for the laws of our society, that he
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: lived by his own code, and that was a code
• 41:49
  Speaker 3: of violence, death and destruction. The defendant's key argument in
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: penalty phase was that mister Magaitega had a horrible child
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: that included being burned, that he had been neglected and
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: because of that in the circumstances of mister Magtega's life,
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: that he should not be given the death penarty.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: The jury deliberated for four days, they could not reach
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: a unanimous verdict of death.
• 42:24
  Speaker 6: My reaction of the verdict was surprised. I believe that
• 42:29
  Speaker 6: this crime and this person were deserving of the death penalty.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Mahonga Tanga may have narrowly escaped the death sentence, but
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: he will die behind bars as you received another natural
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: life sentence.
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: Based on who he's been, what he's done, the pain
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: that he's caused, the fact that he continues to create victims.
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: In my opinion, the only appropriate sentence for what mister
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: Mangtega did in this case was the death penalty.
• 43:05
  Speaker 5: I don't think consequences have ever mattered to him or
• 43:08
  Speaker 5: deterred him, so the sentence was really inconsequential, probably to him.
• 43:13
  Speaker 5: Manganga is going to continue doing what he wants to
• 43:16
  Speaker 5: do when he wants to do it no matter what
• 43:18
  Speaker 5: the sentence is that he receives.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: Mahonga Tanga was sent back to Souarto. He will never
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: be released, just as his victims and their families will
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: never be released from the pain he inflicted.
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: Mangitega has devastated multiple people. They are left with the
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: emotional toll and emotional scarring of his actions and what
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: he's done to them and what he's done to their
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: loved ones. He's created a lot of heartache. He's hurt
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: a lot of people.
• 43:58
  Speaker 5: I think Muhongo Tega is one of the hot levels
• 44:00
  Speaker 5: of evil.
• 44:03
  Speaker 7: From such a young age.
• 44:04
  Speaker 5: I mean there was burglaries, there were robberies, there was
• 44:07
  Speaker 5: sexual violence, there was murder, there was overkill. That to
• 44:14
  Speaker 5: me is the most evil type of person because it
• 44:18
  Speaker 5: shows that there are no limits as to what kind
• 44:21
  Speaker 5: of crimes he's willing to engage in.
• 44:34
  Speaker 6: Knowing that Margatanka is still kind of out there is
• 44:36
  Speaker 6: kind of scary for anyone who will come in contact
• 44:39
  Speaker 6: with them in the prison system.
• 44:43
  Speaker 5: I can see him continuing to harm and hurt people
• 44:46
  Speaker 5: until he takes his very last breath.