A Sacramento County jury has convicted Daniel Fiamatai Foalima of first-degree murder in the brutal slaying of a man at a Del Paso Heights apartment complex in 2010.
The conviction came in a retrial after a previous jury failed in March to reach a verdict. A spokeswoman for the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office said Foalima, 22, is to be sentenced July 6. He faces a possible maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Foalima was accused of killing 50-year-old Arun Kumar Singh on Aug. 7, 2010, at the North Avenue Apartments. Singh was staying alone in his daughter's apartment. When neighbors hear the fire alarm go off sometime after 2 a.m., they rushed to the apartment and found Singh dead.
Authorities said Singh had been stabbed, stomped, asphyxiated by a crushed larynx and nearly every bone in his face had been fractured. One hand had been cut off and attempts had been made to sever the other one. Singh's body also had been set on fire.
A former girlfriend of Foalima, who said she had heard him talking about the killing, told police where they could find the severed hand and knives used in the attack. Authorities subsequently located the hand, knives and two smoke detectors in a field between the North Avenue Apartments and Interstate 80.
The girlfriend said Singh was killed during a robbery, and that Foalima cut off his hand because he was concerned that Singh had scratched him and his DNA would be found beneath the dead man's fingernails.
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