California: July 14, 2004
Daily Journal

The Menlo Park handyman accused of shooting a cab driver during a botched robbery last fall knows he’s facing a first-degree murder trial. What 31-year-old Lousa Mataele doesn’t know is if a conviction will send him to life in prison without parole or death row.

A jury trial date was once again postponed yesterday because District Attorney Jim Fox has yet to determine which punishment to seek. An answer doesn’t appear to be in the works any time soon, with the main prosecutor on vacation and plenty of ongoing trials to keep the office busy.

“That’s a very good question. I really don’t know,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe about the timeline for a decision.

Fox just announced a decision in the death penalty-eligible case of Eddie Rapoza this week. That triple murder occurred more than 22 months ago. Fox also has a handful of other eligible cases to consider, including Lawrence May who is accused of fatally stabbing his wife with a pair of scissors.

Mataele is eligible for the death penalty in the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Davinder Singh and the attempted murder of a fellow cab passenger because they both allegedly occurred during a felony robbery. Mataele has pleaded not guilty to all charges, including great bodily injury and attempted robbery.

Singh’s Sept. 13 death set off worry in the Sikh community that it was a hate crime, but authorities said it only appeared to be an unprovoked attack. Singh was shot twice in the head.

The shooting occurred in the early morning hours, after a night of drinking with 25-year-old Jaime Torres of Redwood City. The men barely knew each other but Torres testified during a preliminary hearing that Mataele went with him to a friend’s home to continue drinking.

When Torres called a cab to go home, Mataele climbed in, too. Shortly into the drive, Mataele allegedly pulled a gun from a backpack he was carrying and demanded money from Singh, the driver. Before Singh could respond, he was shot twice, Torres said.

The shooting caused Singh to crash the cab into a parked car at Ebener Street and Oak Avenue. Torres said Mataele then turned the gun toward him, demanding his cell phone and gold teeth, before fleeing. Torres suffered a cut lip. Singh died.

Mataele was discovered about 20 minutes later at a bus stop on El Camino Real with the backpack containing the gun.

Mataele remains in custody on no-bail status. He returns to court Aug. 6 to set a trial date.

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Peninsula cabbies fearful after slaying

Sep. 15, 2003

SOME SIKHS UPSET OVER POLICE RESPONSE
By Patrick May
Mercury News

As dozens of Peninsula Sikh cabdrivers staged a work slowdown Sunday to mourn a colleague slain over the weekend, many
lashed out at the Redwood City Police Department, saying their refusal to talk about details of the crime has left them too terrified
to pick up fares.

Investigators have given no indication that the shooting death of Davinder Singh early Saturday was a hate crime. But many of the
cabbies and most of Singh's relatives worry that the 21-year-old driver was targeted because of his accent and orange turban. In
the absence of a public account of the incident, fear has settled in.

``These guys are just trying to make a living, but they're really scared,'' said Bikram Singh, 36, owner of Yellow Cab Peninsula. His 35-taxi fleet is one of the area's largest. Sunday, he joined drivers outside the victim's home in Redwood Shores to pay respect to Singh's grieving mother and two brothers.

``Everyday these drivers are insulted by passengers who tell them, `Go back to your own country' or call them `bin Laden,' '' he
said. ``And when they go to complain, the police don't listen. I think the police feel we're not part of the community so they can't
be bothered to take the time to help us out.''

Detectives, who early Saturday arrested Singh's accused killer, Lousa Mataele, a 31-year-old Tongan construction worker from
Menlo Park, did not return calls Sunday. But Redwood City police Sgt. Sean Hart expressed surprise that the cabdrivers felt they
were being treated unfairly.

``We respond to all calls for service as soon as possible,'' Hart said. ``The department has a very positive relationship with the
cabbies. They call us and we respond.'' Singh's relatives are outraged by the way authorities have dealt with them, saying police didn't notify them in the hours after the death. The victim's older brother, Sarabjit, said police were ``not
very forthcoming. They never even called us to say my brother had been shot.''

According to a brief news release from police, along with interviews by the Mercury News, here's what happened:

About 2:30 a.m. Saturday, Mataele and a friend named Jaime knocked on the door at 509 Madison Ave. in Redwood City. ``I
knew Lousa vaguely from playing pool,'' said the apartment's resident, who identified himself only as Justin. ``He said he was
being chased by somebody and wanted to come in. They hung out awhile; they were really drunk. It was creepy, so I called Yellow Cab for them. I got the feeling they were out looking for trouble. I guess they found it.''

Singh, who had been driving a taxi for two years, picked up the two men and headed for an unknown destination. At 3:22 a.m.,
about 15 blocks away, Singh's cab rolled to a stop at Oak Avenue and Ebener Street. ``During a confrontation inside the taxicab,'' according to the release, ``the suspect fired several shots into the victim's head, killing him.''

The cab then lurched forward, clipping the rear bumper of a neighbor's Ford Tempo. Mataele ran away, police said, and was
later apprehended. The other passenger was not arrested, but police said he is a witness to the crime. Singh's body remained in the cab for hours as police and coroner investigators collected evidence. At 6:30 a.m., neighbor Miriam Epstein looked out from her house.

``I watched them pull the guy out of the car, then saw them take out his orange turban, which looked like it was covered with black gunpowder,'' she said. ``They must have shot him right through his turban.'' While police scoured the scene, Singh's older brother, also a cabdriver, got up at 5 a.m. to go to work. Sarabjit Singh's boss told him he had just seen something on television about a Redwood City cabby being killed.

Sarabjit called his younger brother's two cell phones, but got no answer. He called home, but their mother said Davinder hadn't
returned yet from his nightly shift. He called Davinder's company, Yellow Cab 2000, where someone said his brother had been
involved in a crime and had been arrested.

Sarabjit Singh drove to the jail. He drove to the California Highway Patrol. He drove to the hospital. Panicked, he went to the police. After waiting for 15 minutes, he said, a police officer showed him his brother's ID and told him ``he got good medicine and he's sleeping at the county hospital. I said, `Let me go and see him,' and they said no. Then other police came and told me he was dead.''

``This was 7 a.m. and he'd been dead since 3:30 a.m.,'' Sarabjit Singh said. Police said Sunday that it's up to the coroner to notify next of kin. San Mateo County coroner's investigator Phil Hickman said that according to the case report, another investigator did contact Singh's mother. But Singh's younger brother Ranjeet said, ``My mother doesn't speak English, so how are they going to tell her? And nobody came by. I think they're making it up.''