SALT LAKE CITY — She was 2,000 miles away when her brother was shot and killed in a busy West Valley intersection two years ago, but a recording from a bystander transported Laga Mikovich to the scene.
"I wanted so badly to step in that video, to kneel at my brother's side, to hold his hand, to tell him to be strong,” she said in court Friday. "There were none of those things."
Mikovich and other family members of Maluolefale Toala urged a judge to impose the heftiest prison term possible for the man who shot him in the chest, Aaron Jay Pierce.
Third District Judge Vernice Trease did just that. She ordered Pierce, 26, to serve at least one and up to 15 years in prison, the maximum sentence available for his conviction of manslaughter, a second-degree felony.
"The harm is huge," Trease said. "When a life is taken, the punishment needs to fit the crime."
On May 28, 2016, Pierce and his brother were driving a pickup at 5600 West and 3500 South when they passed Toala riding his longboard, court documents say. After Pierce's brother made a "yelping" noise, Toala caught up with the vehicle at a red light and started yelling at Pierce and his brother.
Toala walked toward Pierce as he got out of the truck and fired at Toala at the crowded intersection, where a bystander recorded video of Toala on the ground.
On Friday, Siolo Toala told the courtroom that his late brother was a gentle, free spirit who loved riding his longboard and was headed to his niece's graduation party on the day he was killed. He worked nights at a warehouse and spent days with his sister Louise and her family.
Siolo Toala in a booming voice called Pierce a "George Zimmerman wannabe," referring to the neighborhood watch captain who was charged but ultimately acquitted in the 2012 shooting death of black Florida teen Trayvon Martin.
"The last time you saw courage was when my brother looked you in the eyes before you killed him," he said.
A shackled Pierce apologized to the family, saying he recognizes that "they hate my guts."
"I felt that I did what I had to do and I truly regret it," Pierce said. "The ony reason I get any sleep at night is because I know that God knows what happened.”
Pierce, of Salt Lake City, was originally charged with murder. But a jury in October decided he could have reasonably fired at Toala in self-defense and found him guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter.
Defense attorney Clifford Venable said Friday that before his client was jailed, he was in school and helped his mom to pay bills, even though he didn't have much money. Pierce didn't taunt anyone that day and has received several threats over the past two years, Venable said. His client tutors other inmates in the Salt Lake County Jail and gets along with them.
Venable asked Trease to impose a year in jail for his client, saying a prison term was "very possibly a sentence to death."
Prosecutor Roger Blaylock offered a different picture of Pierce. He was carrying two extra clips on that spring day and fired into a busy road in the middle of the afternoon, Blaylock said — a decision contrary to the teachings of a class he took to obtain a concealed-carry permit.
Witnesses testified that the two exchanged words before the fatal gunshot, but Pierce was the only person to testify that Toala displayed "that much aggression," Blaylock said.
Sniffles could be heard throughout the hearing and a bailiff passed around a box of tissues.
Mikovich, Toala's sister who lives in Maryland, said that even if Pierce serves the entire 15 years in prison, he will still get a chance to start a family of his own someday and take care of his mother as she ages.
But her brother received a death sentence, she said.
“We’re left with nothing but each other and his memory."