Sacto 9-1-1

Q: At least 10 years ago a waitress in the Pocket named Dawn was kidnapped and murdered. What is the status of the matter? - Anonymous, Sacramento

A: Semanulepoto Milo, now 48, was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole and 25-years-to-life on April 24, 2000, for the killing of Dawn Marie Perrigo (photo left), 21, according to court records and Bee reports.

Milo was convicted of the Oct. 11, 1998, robbery and gunshot slaying of Perrigo, a clerk at the Earthgrains Baking Co.'s thrift shop. Her body was discovered in the women's restroom at the store on Wilbur Way near Gerber Road in south Sacramento.

She had been shot five times by Milo's 9 mm Glock pistol, and about $430 was missing from the bakery's cash register, according to the probation report.

Investigators were directed toward Milo by employees who remembered that the company driver sometimes slept in his car outside the store when he was "having trouble at home," using the bathroom to take sponge baths.

He had his own key to the facility, the report said, and there was no indication there had been a break-in.

With a record of two prior convictions in 1986 and three additional arrests in 1990 and 1991, Milo was a suspect for several months before he was arrested on suspicion of murder on March 17, 1999.

By that time, experts had matched hammer and ejection marks made by Milo's gun to shells found at the homicide scene.

Milo initially denied owning a 9 mm weapon but ultimately turned the Glock over to police with the barrel replaced, apparently in an attempt to thwart a ballistics comparison.

A cheaper, after-market barrel produced in Korea had replaced the Glock's original barrel, and it had been crudely painted black to match, the probation report said. Some of the new paint jammed the gun's mechanism, causing it to misfire when tested.

Milo continued to deny responsibility for the killing. He told probation officers, "I know for a fact I am innocent."

Evidence produced at trial suggested that Milo persuaded a former jail mate to testify on his behalf by promising the inmate a rendezvous with his sister-in-law in Hawaii.

Jurors rejected the inmate's testimony as a fabrication concocted by Milo, and the inmate subsequently recanted, admitting to investigators that his story was a lie, the report stated.

Judge John V. Stroud, who presided over Milo's trial, pronounced the sentence, imposing the mandated life-without-parole for murder committed during a robbery plus 25 years to life, to be served consecutively, for the use of a firearm causing death.

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