Osana Futi Killing: Judge Discloses Newark School Documents to Defense Attorney

A superior court judge ruled Thursday to allow the attorney of a Fremont man charged with the murder of Newark Memorial High School Osana Futi to access school documents about the slain 18-year-old.

Superior Court Judge Dennis J. McLaughlin disclosed several Newark Unified School District documents about Futi to defense attorney Thomas Knutsen during a court proceeding held in a Fremont courtroom Thursday morning.

Knutsen represents Abraham Ibrahim Hade, 18, of Fremont. Hade faces one count of in connection Futi’s killing. He pleaded to that charge on May 23.

But not all of the documents were released to the defendant’s lawyer. McLaughlin said some documents identified as “irrelevant” and “private” were withheld.

The documents’ sole purpose is to aid Knutsen in defending Hade in court against the charge he faces, McLaughlin said.

Knutsen has previously declined comment about the case and why the school documents were subpoenaed on the defendant’s behalf.

However, last March, the Newark Unified School Board of Education voted to after it was reported that he got into a verbal argument with another student over the December 2011 murder of his best friend, 17-year-old Justice Afoa. Afoa was fatally stabbed on Cedar Boulevard near Birch Street in Newark. That expulsion was later rescinded and Futi was reinstated at Newark Memorial in spring 2011.

Hade was and on April 29 – several hours after Futi was pronounced dead after he was found around 11:20 p.m. on April 28 during a party near a Fremont home by Hyde Park and Yellow Stone Park drives, close to Auto Mall Parkway.

Hade is being held on no bail at Santa Rita Jail. A two-day preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled to be held at 2 p.m. on July 5 and July 6 at the Fremont Hall of Justice.

Futi was laid to rest in American Samoa, where he was born and where his mother lives, earlier this month.

His surrogate family and relatives will gather June 15 for a memory box burial in honor of him. The service will be held at 2 p.m. at the Chapel of the Chimes, 32992 Mission Blvd. in Hayward.