The 2020 killing of Ueta Muasika followed an earlier arson death, although authorities said Muasika was not responsible for that crime.

SAN MATEO, Calif. — Two men convicted of ambushing a father outside his San Mateo home and opening fire as his 2-year-old son was with him have been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, closing the trial phase of a case that stretched nearly six years from the shooting to punishment.

San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Michael K. Wendler sentenced John Talia Paasi, 33, and Isileli Mahe, 34, after a jury found them guilty of first-degree murder in the Oct. 30, 2020, killing of 30-year-old Ueta Savelio Muasika Jr. The jury also found a special circumstance that the defendants had lain in wait before the attack. Muasika’s 2-year-old son was struck by gunfire but survived. Prosecutors said the killing was retaliation connected to an earlier arson that killed Paasi’s grandmother, even though authorities found no evidence that Muasika took part in that fire.

The sentences reflected the jury’s finding that the killing was planned rather than a sudden confrontation. Prosecutors said Paasi and Mahe waited for Muasika near his home on Eleanor Drive and attacked as he was preparing to leave with his young son. Police responding shortly after 9:30 a.m. found Muasika suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in the driveway. He died at the scene. His son, who had been shot once in the face, was taken to a trauma center and later recovered. Authorities said 14 shots were fired during the ambush.

Wendler imposed life without parole on both men after rejecting defense efforts to obtain a new trial. Mahe received an additional six-year term, while Paasi received an additional 12 years, according to reports on the sentencing. Paasi’s sentence was affected by a prior felony strike. The judge also heard victim-impact statements from members of Muasika’s family, including the boy who survived the shooting and is now several years older. The hearing brought the family back into a courtroom for another stage of a case that began when the child was a toddler.

The prosecution tied the killing to a separate crime committed the year before. In February 2019, a deliberately set fire at a San Mateo home killed Susana Tonga, Paasi’s grandmother. Authorities accused Muasika’s cousin, Fifita Tau, of setting that fire while targeting people he believed were connected to a rival group. Tau was later convicted in Tonga’s death. Police said Paasi survived the fire, while his grandmother did not. Investigators later concluded that Tonga’s death became a motive for the attack on Muasika, who was related to the man responsible for the arson but was not himself implicated in it.

That distinction became one of the central facts in the murder case. Authorities repeatedly said the investigation did not establish that Muasika had participated in the arson or was responsible for Tonga’s death. Instead, prosecutors said he became the target of retaliation because of his family connection to Tau. Then-San Mateo Police Chief Ed Barberini described the 2020 shooting as personal and targeted when police announced arrests in 2022. Paasi and Muasika had known each other for years, according to police statements reported at the time.

The murder investigation lasted about 18 months and eventually crossed several state lines. San Mateo detectives said evidence led them to Paasi in Charlotte, North Carolina, and to Mahe in Honolulu, Hawaii. Both were arrested on April 18, 2022, with help from local and federal law enforcement agencies and were later returned to California. The arrests came long after the initial crime scene had been cleared, requiring investigators to build a case from evidence collected over many months rather than from an immediate arrest near the shooting.

The question of who physically fired the weapon remained unresolved at trial. Prosecutors acknowledged that they could not prove which of the two defendants was the shooter. They instead presented the case under principles of aiding and abetting, arguing that both men participated in the planned attack and were legally responsible for the murder. The jury accepted that theory after a 24-day trial and returned guilty verdicts in March 2026. The verdicts included first-degree murder and the lying-in-wait special circumstance, along with crimes connected to the shooting of the child.

The defense had disputed the prosecution’s case. Before trial, Mahe’s attorney, Brandon Douglass, argued that his client lacked a meaningful connection to San Mateo County and denied that Mahe had anything to do with Muasika’s killing. Paasi also pleaded not guilty and denied responsibility. Those arguments were ultimately rejected by the jury. After sentencing, Douglass said he intended to continue challenging Mahe’s conviction through the appellate process, meaning the legal case may continue even though the trial court has imposed its sentence.

For Muasika’s family, the case has unfolded across several stages: the killing, the child’s recovery, a long investigation, arrests on opposite sides of the country, pretrial proceedings, a monthlong trial and finally sentencing. Muasika, who also performed locally under the name Juice Boi, was remembered by relatives not only as a musician but as a father. His son’s survival became a continuing part of the court record because the boy was beside him when the gunfire began and later took part in the sentencing process through the family’s victim-impact statements.

The case also illustrates how the consequences of one violent crime can extend into another without transferring legal responsibility from one person to a relative. The 2019 arson and the 2020 shooting were separate criminal cases involving different victims and defendants. Prosecutors used the earlier fire to explain motive, not to accuse Muasika of causing it. Investigators said the evidence showed retaliation was directed at him despite the absence of proof that he had anything to do with Tonga’s death. That finding was crucial to understanding why authorities described the later killing as an act of revenge rather than a continuation of the original arson case.

With the life-without-parole sentences now imposed, Paasi and Mahe face permanent imprisonment unless their convictions or sentences are changed through later court proceedings. Mahe’s attorney has said an appeal is planned. No appellate ruling has been reported, and the sentencing marked the latest confirmed development in the case.

Author note: Last updated August 28, 2026.