SALT LAKE CITY — Even at 18-years-old, Ricky Angilau, looks young, baby-faced, lighthearted.
But the teenager was nonetheless ordered Friday to stand trial for murder, a first-degree felony, for allegedly shooting a 16-year-old who had gathered with others to watch Angilau fight another student.
Third District Judge Ann Boyden also ordered Angilau to stand trial for obstructing justice and carrying a concealed weapon, second-degree felonies, and possession of a firearm on school premises, a class A misdemeanor.
Angilau, who was just 16 at the time, is accused of shooting and killing Esteban Saidi following a fistfight between two Kearns High students on Jan. 21, 2009. Lolo Maetele, Angilau's friend, said he saw Angilau multiple times earlier that day, including once in a restroom where Angilau showed him a gun.
"(Later) we was walking toward class, because we had class in the same hallway and I heard swearing and stuff and I turned around and saw Ricky and this other kid, Erik, swearing at each other," Maetele testified Friday.
He said Erik, later identified as Erik Flores, wanted to fight Angilau there in the hallway, but Maetele told them to take it outside. They left the school building and went to a nearby neighborhood. Angilau was accompanied by Maetele and Flores left with a friend.
Flores testified that he and Angilau had had problems with one another since junior high school. Flores said he even made attempts to attend different high schools to avoid "drama" with Tongans he said he had experienced previously.
When they left school that day, he said he passed a group of people who knew the pair didn't get along and the group followed, assuming there was going to be a fight.
Maetele said the fight broke out within minutes of leaving school property. He remembered noticing two passenger vehicles pass them as they walked. The cars were later parked near the area where the fight began.
"They just started throwing punches," he said. "Erik was just going for (Angilau's) body and Ricky was aiming more for his head. Then they stopped and Erik was walking away like he won the fight."
By then, some of the cars' occupants had gathered around, forming a small group. Maetele, who testified that Angilau had given him the gun just before the fight, returned the gun to Angilau and then started his own fistfight with Flores.
After a few seconds, he said Flores turned again to go, but the group of onlookers began to walk toward them.
"Then Ricky pulls out the gun and aims it at Erik and Erik's like, 'Go ahead and shoot. I'll get you back,'" Maetele said. "Ricky pulls the gun back and a bullet falls out ... then he shoots the gun into the air and everyone starts running."
Flores testified that he had, in fact, challenged Angilau to shoot.
"We were walking and Ricky kept saying stuff. So I turned back, he pulled out the gun and I told him, 'If you shoot me, I'll get you back,'" he said. "I saw him pull the gun out, pointing it at me, to my face. That's when I kind of froze."
He said the crowd dispersed after Angilau fired that first shot, prompting Angilau to shoot again. Maetele said two shots were then fired toward the crowd, but more into the air than directly at anyone. Flores said he heard 16-year-old Esteban get hit — someone he'd just seen for the first time.
"(Esteban) ran and fell down and we all ran to him," Flores said. "We lifted up his shirt and saw he got shot."
Maetele said he and Angilau were approached by the group again before Angilau fired again, leading defense attorneys to question whether they felt threatened or outnumbered as many of those who gathered were known gang members. He said they didn't know Esteban and didn't initially realize that he had been shot.
"Everyone was all scared and then (Esteban) just started shaking his body and we all thought was dancing or something so we all started laughing. But then he took a couple more steps and fell down again and I told Ricky, 'Let's get out of here,'" Maetele said.
The two ran to the home of a friend, whose father-in-law encouraged them to talk to police. The teens agreed and did so, later turning themselves over to their school resource officer. But before, Maetele said Angilau was crying, repeatedly saying that he had killed somebody, but hadn't meant to.
Angilau's attorney, Ronald Yengich, argued that the murder charge should be amended to reckless manslaughter and asked for 10 days to file a brief to further explain how the shooting was more recklessness than depraved indifference for human life, which is an element of murder under state statute.
"He did not shoot intending to cause serious bodily injury to anyone," Yengich told the judge. But Boyden said the fact that Angilau first pointed the gun at Flores was indicative of probable cause, which is the standard at this stage in court proceedings. She called Yengich's arguments "a theory."
"It's not a theory," Yengich said after the hearing. "That's what the evidence was. The evidence showed he pointed away from people and didn't shoot the man he'd been fighting. Even Mr. Flores indicated he pointed away before he fired. He didn't intend to harm anyone."
He called the entire case a "tragedy" and talked of the message it sends about how differences between two people can escalate.
"How it can turn and how kids can get together and turn what's supposed to be a normal fistfight into more than that and it's a tragedy," Yengich said, noting the impact on the families of those involved.
Nani Angilau described her nephew as a "great kid" who was close to earning his Eagle Scout award when he was arrested. She said he wants to come home, having already spent two years in prison, and she doesn't think he ever intended to kill.
"It wasn't murder," she said. "I don't believe that a bit. It was a fight. Things happen. ... We're hanging in there for Ricky. We love him."
Prosecutors have a different view.
"We're glad he was bound over," deputy district attorney Patricia Cassell said. "We believe (the case) was charged appropriately. It's been charged as murder, and that's what we're proceeding on." Angilau will again appear in court May 13.
Contributing: Jared Page
Email: emorgan@desnews.com
Twitter: DNewsCrimeTeam