Fight between Pierce County homeless men led to ‘savage attack,’ years in prison
A deadly encounter between two homeless men behind a business strip in Fife — one armed with a pipe and the other with a 9-inch knife — led to more than 30 stab wounds in what prosecutors called a “prolonged, savage attack” on someone who begged for his life.
The defendant, Ioane Atonio, claimed self-defense but was found guilty in March of first-degree manslaughter by a jury that also rejected murder charges. His defense attorney argued ahead of sentencing May 1 that the victim started the fight and was on methamphetamine, securing a low-end sentence of eight-and-a-half years in prison.
Eric Trujillo, Atonio’s attorney from the Pierce County Department of Assigned Counsel, wrote in a sentencing memorandum that his client did not want to kill the victim, 63-year-old Falealo Pulusila, but Atonio was reckless and went too far. Atonio had no prior criminal history, according to prosecutors.
“All of the circumstances of two homeless people fighting with deadly weapons over access to a dumpster is tragic and sad,” Trujillo wrote.
The fatal stabbing occurred the morning of Jan. 31, 2025 near 1506 54th Ave. E., according to court documents. Prosecutors said Pulusila was living out of his vehicle at the time and had set up a makeshift encampment. Atonio, then 31, had recently become homeless after losing his job at a nearby restaurant. Investigators noted that the knife found in his possession when police arrested him matched the knives used in the restaurant.
Atonio testified at trial that he was digging through a dumpster for the restaurant when Pulusila grabbed him, Trujillo said in a phone call Tuesday.
Moments before the encounter, a man who was in the area saw Pulusila glaring at him and banging a pipe while Pulusila stood in a dumpster, according to the defense’s sentencing memorandum. The witness testified at trial that Pulusila was acting volatile and unpredictable, and that he felt like he had stepped onto the man’s turf.
Surveillance video captured some of what happened next.
At about 10:42 a.m., a camera captured Atonio walking west past the restaurant, according to prosecutors’ trial brief. He took out a knife. Prosecutors said he tried to hide it in his sleeve, but the defense said he made no effort to conceal the weapon.
Atonio walked out of camera view but soon came running back into the frame, according to the defense’s trial brief. Pulusila then walked into frame holding a nearly 2-foot metal pipe and advanced toward Atonio.
At about 10:45 a.m., according to prosecutors, Atonio and Pulusila were seen circling a white Ford pickup truck in what appeared to be a fighting stance. Eventually, according to the defense, Atonio squared up with Pulusila, and the two swung at each other and moved off camera.
A few minutes later, prosecutors said, Atonio reappeared on camera walking east through the parking lot. He then moved back toward Pulusila. Prosecutors said multiple witnesses said Atonio stabbed Pulusila multiple times, walked away, then returned to stab him again while Pulusila remained on the ground.
Fife Police Department officers responded at about 10:48 a.m., according to court documents. Officers had been advised that the suspect was seen running behind a store. Officers detained Atonio, removed a bloodied knife from his pocket and identified him with a South Dakota ID card. Trujillo noted in court documents that Atonio was bleeding from a head injury that required staples.
Officers found the victim sitting with his back against a wall. According to the probable cause document, Pulusila had long and deep wounds to his neck and face, as well as on his arms, chest and back. He died on the way to the hospital.
Prosecutors asked Superior Court Judge Shelly Moss to impose a high-end sentence of 10-and-a-half years.
Deputy prosecuting attorney Derek Keenan wrote in a sentencing memorandum that a lengthier sentence would give Antonio more time to engage with programming and, with the assistance of professionals, confront whatever drove him to this. Keenan said the evidence established that Pulusila screamed, “Stop!”, during the attack. He said the sheer number of wounds Atonio inflicted reflected an “almost complete indifference” to whether Pulusila lived or died.
“Mr. Atonio, by his own admission, escalated a confrontation, attacked a man who posed no reasonable threat to him, and continued that attack long after any reasonable person would have stopped,” Keenan wrote.
In other news out of Superior Court
Teen sentenced as adult for fatal shooting during marijuana buy
A teenager who shot and killed a 16-year-old boy when they met up for a marijuana transaction in Tacoma’s Eastside neighborhood has been sentenced to 15 years in state custody.
Gerhart Stanley pleaded guilty in February to first-degree murder with a firearm for fatally shooting Jonathan Tovar near the 4400 block of Portland Avenue. According to court documents, the two messaged each other on Instagram before the shooting about meeting up to buy or sell THC cartridges.
Detectives obtained surveillance video that showed Tovar climb over a gate and wave at a vehicle occupied by Stanley and another suspect in the driveway of a U-Haul location. It was shortly after midnight on Jan. 25, 2024.
Stanley and the other suspect got out and started shooting at Tovar, who ran away. He was shot in the legs and face. A friend of the victim who was on the phone with him at the time later reported hearing the suspects say, “Get his [expletive]!”
Tovar died at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle six days later.
In a victim-impact statement translated from Spanish, Tovar’s mother wrote to the court about seeing police cars outside her window that night and the anguish that consumed her while she tried to call her son’s cell phone over and over without an answer.
The mother said her son died after a week of agony and that she and her family would bear the trauma of that time in the hospital forever. She said justice was the only thing that could bring her and her family a bit of peace.
“My son deserves to be remembered as the remarkable human being he was and for the brilliant future that was stolen from him,” the mother wrote. “I ask that this case not be seen as just another case file. Look at the picture of my son, look at the dreams he had of buying me a house and understand that they took everything from us.”
Tovar was a student at the former Oakland High School in Tacoma — now Oakland Secondary School — and he worked as a restaurant host, family previously told The News Tribune.
Stanley was 15 at the time. He was arrested in King County about eight months after he killed Tovar. Due to his age, Stanley’s case was originally filed in Juvenile Court. A judge later declined juvenile jurisdiction and moved his case to adult court.
Prosecutors and the defense agreed that moving the case to adult court would mean a longer term of confinement along with supervision and services that increase the chance Stanley can be rehabilitated, according to court documents.
Court records show Stanley has no prior criminal convictions.
The sentence Judge Jennifer Andrews imposed was jointly recommended by prosecutors and the defense. In Washington, young people sentenced for crimes committed before they are 18 go to juvenile rehabilitation in the custody of the Department of Children, Youth and Families until age 25 when they would transfer to the Department of Corrections.
