Aua Lauti was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Tina Lauti
According to court documents Aua Lauti would kidnap his nine year old cousin Tina Lauti. The little girl would be sexually assaulted and murdered
Aua Lauti would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Aua Lauti would be executed by lethal injection on November 4 1997
Aua Lauti Photos
Aua Lauti Case
In September 1986, appellee Aua Lauti was convicted of the capital offense of murder during the course of an aggravated sexual assault and kidnapping. The State’s evidence was that one evening the previous December, Lauti went to the home of his uncle, who lived with his wife and their four young children, Lauti’s cousins. By the time Lauti arrived at his uncle’s home, it was obvious that he had been drinking and was intoxicated. After visiting with his uncle, Lauti told his uncle that he was going home. Instead of going home, Lauti apparently indulged in more drink. Before the evening’s end, Lauti had consumed at a minimum two twelve-packs of beer and four quarts of malt liquor.
Five or ten minutes after leaving his uncle’s home the second time, Lauti returned unexpectedly and either went to sleep or pretended to sleep in one of the bedrooms. After finding Lauti apparently asleep, the uncle took his two oldest daughters and drove approximately four miles to Lauti’s parents’ house (the uncle’s sister and brother-in-law) to have Lauti’s family retrieve him from his uncle’s home. Upon returning, the relatives discovered that Lauti was gone; also missing was the uncle’s nine year-old daughter, Tara, Lauti’s cousin.
Lauti’s parents and brother began searching and found Lauti several miles away. After being quizzed, Lauti directed his parents and brother to Tara, whom they found at a location described by Lauti. She was covered with mud, her face was bruised and bleeding, and she was naked from the waist down. They transported Tara to Lauti’s uncle’s house where it was determined that Tara was dead. She died from three injuries, any one of which would have been sufficient to kill her: a skull fracture, asphyxiation due to strangulation, and a crushed chest.
After being arrested and informed of his legal rights, Lauti gave a written statement to the authorities (which was presented to the jury) in which he described the murder in detail. He admitted abducting Tara from her home after knocking her unconscious by hitting her in the head with his fist. He then took her into his car where she regained consciousness while he was driving, and he again knocked her unconscious with an empty quart malt liquor bottle. After reaching a location that suited him, he carried her into a field where he hit her in the chest with his fist, removed her clothes from the waist down, and digitally penetrated her vagina. He then attempted unsuccessfully to rape her. At that point, he hit her in the chest again with his fist, choked her with his hands for about five minutes, and left her in the field.
The jury convicted Lauti of capital murder. At the sentencing phase of his trial, the jury heard testimony that in 1975 Lauti was convicted in Hawaii of first degree rape in which he had also beaten his victim while high from sniffing paint. The jury also learned that in 1981 Lauti threatened motorists and a Honolulu Police Department officer with a machete while apparently “under the influence of paint.”
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-5th-circuit/1277735.html
