SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City police have made a second arrest in connection with a murder at a gas station earlier this month.
Sione Fakatoufifita, 19, was shot and killed outside the Maverik gas station at 1680 S Redwood Rd. on the morning of April 13.
According to Fakatoufifita’s family, he had called his parents to ask for a ride moments before he was murdered.
“They actually went to go pick him up and there’s cops around there, and the police told them that there was a crime scene. Come to find out, it was their son that was shot,” said Kalolaina Samani, the teenager’s cousin.
During their investigation into the murder, police learned Vaiola Tenifa may have been involved with the shooting, according to a probable cause statement.
Police said they interviewed Tenifa on multiple occasions, but he claimed he never left his home on the night of April 12 or the morning of April 13.
Police said Vaiola admitted during a third interview that he did leave his home in his wife’s Chrysler 300 and that he drove through the parking lot of the Maverik within minutes of Fakatoufifita’s murder.
Vaiola told police he lied to them during previous interviews because he didn’t want to be involved in or associated with the murder, the probable cause statement said.
Vaiola was booked into the Salt Lake County Metro Jail and faces a third-degree felony charge of obstruction of justice.
Morgan Marie Holst, 18, also faces obstruction of justice charges after she allegedly lied to police several times about the details of her involvement with Fakatoufifita, who was her fiance.
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