Judge: Santa Rosa bar shooting ‘cold-blooded murder,’ 2 sentenced

Two Sonoma County men are expected to spend the rest of their lives in prison after being sentenced Wednesday for a 2021 fatal shooting outside a Santa Rosa bar.

Ednie Afamasaga, 30, and Fotagia Fuiava, 32, sat quietly as Judge Robert LaForge sentenced them for killing Kenneth McDaniel outside the Whiskey Tip on Sept. 25, 2021.

LaForge capped off the emotional hearing in Sonoma County Superior Court in Santa Rosa by emphasizing that the killing was “a cold-blooded murder.”

Testimony in Afamasaga’s and Fuiava’s jury trial began Feb. 20. Jurors began deliberating nearly a month later on March 19.

They deliberated for seven days before acquitting both men of conspiracy on March 29 but convicting them of second-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon and shooting at an inhabited dwelling or vehicle.

On Wednesday, LaForge ordered Afamasaga to serve a total sentence of 43 years to life in prison.

The judge handed down a heavier sentence of 59 years to life in prison for Fuiava because he has a previous felony conviction of assault with a deadly weapon.

Prosecutors had charged both men with first-degree murder with an enhancement for lying in wait, but jurors instead convicted them of lesser second-degree murder.

Standing beside a loved one who carried McDaniel’s photo Wednesday, his great aunt, Juanita McDaniel, told LaForge she disliked that the pair had been convicted of a lesser murder charge.

“If it was up to me, I would have given them the death penalty,” she told the judge.

“It destroyed me, your honor,” she said of the killing. “Every time I came to court, I relived it, your honor.”

In a handwritten letter submitted to court, Fuiava said he feels terrible for what he did and asked McDaniel’s family for forgiveness.

“Has definitely been a huge eye opener for me,” he wrote. “I can’t even find the correct words to describe how I’ve gotten to this point. Thinking about all the pain I’ve caused not only to the victim’s families, but also to my own, is a burden I’ll have to carry with me ‘til my last days.”

Whether Afamasaga and Fuiava gunned down Kenneth McDaniel was never in doubt during the trial. At question was whether they killed him in self-defense or out of revenge.

Afamasaga had testified that Kenneth McDaniel shot him outside Remy’s Bar & Grill in Santa Rosa in June 2018.

He claimed he was a bouncer and trying to break up a parking lot fight involving McDaniel, who opened fire, striking Afamasaga twice in his leg.

McDaniel , though, was never arrested for the 2018 shooting in which Afamasaga was injured. And McDaniel’s family said Wednesday there was no evidence he was responsible.

Prosecutors contended the defendants sought revenge for the Remy’s shooting when they encountered McDaniel three years later at the Whiskey Tip.

Defense attorneys countered that the Whiskey Tip shooting happened because their clients believed McDaniel was a threat to them and their families, who were also at the bar that night.

One of them was participating in a rap performance that had attracted dozens of people to the venue.

Both defendants testified they considered leaving the Whiskey Tip when they saw McDaniel but they approached him to discuss maintaining a peaceful night.

He balked at the request and told Afamasaga “’Get your (expletive) outside.”

According to the defendants, this comment made them fear that McDaniel was a threat and both opened fire in the parking lot before fleeing the scene.

Prosecutors countered that McDaniel feared the defendants, who spent 46 minutes watching him and never saw McDaniel with a gun.

Surveillance footage from the Whiskey Tip showed that McDaniel was on his knees beside a pickup truck, with a friend, when Afamasaga and Fuiava fired about 30 rounds at him.

McDaniel was hit 19 times.

On Wednesday, Juanita McDaniel told the court, “I would’ve taken a bullet for that boy. I would’ve taken all 19 bullets.”

Prosecutors argued that unregistered guns were used in the killing even though Afamasaga had legally purchased one for protection after the 2018 shooting.

Afamasaga testified that he left the Whiskey Tip and threw his gun into the Petaluma River. Fuiava said he left his gun in bushes before retrieving it and disposing of it in the Pacific Ocean.

The defendants were arrested three days after the shooting and have been in custody since their arrests.

Five of Afamasaga’s supporters also submitted letters to LaForge urging leniency. They included his wife, Sequoia, who described Afamasaga as a hardworking man and loving father and husband.

“I do believe that with the right support, guidance and the chance, he is capable of being an active and contributing member of society,” she wrote. “I do not ask for the seriousness of the situation to be disregarded. I respectfully ask that the truth of his character be considered in the deliberation of his sentence and leniency be granted.”

Political controversy arose in the shooting’s aftermath when Santa Rosa police detectives served a search warrant on Santa Rosa City Council member Eddie Alvarez.

He told The Press Democrat he was at Whiskey Tip on Sept. 25 but left before the shooting occurred.

Still, police seized two cellphones, one that was city property, as he left City Hall in January 2022.

Police and prosecutors for months refused to release the search warrant or provide any explanation for the seizure, citing an ongoing investigation into the shooting. The Press Democrat sued for the release of the search warrant and in September 2022 police released the materials.

The warrant affidavit indicated detectives’ probable cause to seize the elected officials’ phones was based principally on an anonymous letter, peppered with other provable falsehoods, suggesting Alvarez had something to do with the murder.

That tip proved false, and Alvarez was not part of either the defense or the prosecution’s case.

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi