Judge sets new trial for man accused of killing campus cop

RENO, Nev. -- A judge acknowledged community outrage Tuesday over the mistrial she declared because a word in a transcript was copied down wrong in the case of a man accused of hacking a campus police officer to death.

Washoe District Judge Connie Steinheimer set Sept. 7 as the new trial date for Siaosi Vanisi, 28, accused of the hatchet slaying of Sgt. George Sullivan of the University of Nevada, Reno.

"I would rather start it today if I had my drothers," Steinheimer told lawyers for both sides in court Tuesday.

But Vanisi's public defenders have asked for 60 days to prepare for the new trial. And a cooling-off period might help in selecting an impartial jury, the judge said.

"I'm concerned about the jury selection," Steinheimer said. "We had a lot of publicity about the mistrial. If we wait ... we've lost the initial impact of the publicity and we'll be able to select jurors."

Washoe District Attorney Richard Gammick said he was confident Vanisi would be convicted in the second trial and sentenced to death.

"We're ready to go," he said Tuesday.

Vanisi's lawyers argued unsuccessfully in the first trial for a change of venue given the high profile of Sullivan's murder.

The 19-year department veteran and father of five, was found bludgeoned to death near his patrol car on Jan. 13, 1998.

A massive manhunt ended the next day in Salt Lake City, where Vanisi was arrested following a 3 1/2 -hour standoff with authorities.

The judge granted the mistrial on Friday after the error in the transcript was discovered.

The initial transcript had a witness quoting another person as saying "I just did a 187" - a slang term for committing a murder.

The corrected transcript read "Baya" just did a 187.

Gammick says "Baya" is a nickname for Vanisi, but defense lawyers disagree. They said they had based their defense in part on the assumption that someone other than Vanisi had claimed to have committed the murder.

At the request of the public defenders on Tuesday, the judge ordered prosecutors to make copies of all audio and videotapes of interviews with witnesses.

"Somebody has to compare the written with the oral so we don't go through this again in September," defense lawyer Michael Specchio said.

"We've got probably 2,000 pages of transcripts. There are probably a lot of errors," he told the judge.

Gammick said the transcripts are not certified.

"We've seen errors before," he said, adding that a meeting was scheduled with law enforcement officials Tuesday to make sure it doesn't happen again.

The public defenders said after Tuesday's hearing Vanisi has been made the villain in the request for mistrial. They said police investigators and transcribers were to blame for the mistaken transcript.

"Let's put the responsibility for this mess where it belongs," Specchio said. "It does not lie with Vanisi. He did nothing to cause this."

The tapes had been in possession of police. Prosecutors and defense lawyers both had been working off the transcripts, said Steve Gregory, another defense lawyer.

"It was not a case of us not doing our job or the DA not doing his job. Both sides were relying on the transcripts," Gregory said.

"Gammick listened to them Friday and called us 20 minutes before the hearing. You can't get closer to the 11th hour than that," he said.

"That's worse than trial by ambush," Specchio said.

Gregory said Tuesday Vanisi never has been called "Baya." He said Vanisi has in the past been referred to by others as "Be," pronounced "bay," a Tongan name for "baby."

"I don't know where 'Baya' came from," he said.

Gammick said there would be no change in his prosecution strategy.

"I was looking very much forward to wrapping up witnesses today," he said before Tuesday's court appearance. "It's not only tough on us, it's tough on the resources and tough on all the families involved."

Carolyn Sullivan, the officer's widow, attended the hearing on Tuesday but had no comment. She issued a statement Friday night she was grateful there would be a second trial.

"My family looks forward to the time we can put all of this behind us," she said.

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