Crime & Safety

Osana Futi Killing Suspect Pleads Innocent

The Newark Memorial High School senior died in late April after succumbing to injuries he sustained in a stabbing.

An 18-year-old Fremont man pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in connection with the gang-related of Newark student Osana Futi.

Abraham Ibrahim Hade appeared before Superior Court Judge Dennis J. McLaughlin Wednesday morning with his attorney, Thomas Knutsen, who entered the plea on his behalf.

Hade faces one count of .

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The plea was entered in a Fremont courtroom where nine of Futi’s family friends were present in support of the slain Newark Memorial High School senior’s surrogate family who is currently in American Samoa where the 18-year-old’s body was transported for burial in his homeland.

In court, Knutsen made a request to schedule a hearing so the court can decide whether subpoenaed documents sent to him from the can be disclosed to him.

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The defendant’s lawyer noted the documents are related to Futi and that before the documents are disclosed to him, the law requires he demonstrate probable cause for him to uncover them. The attorney has the documents but has not opened them.

That on-camera hearing will be held in private corridors with the judge tomorrow afternoon.

McLaughlin’s decision about whether those documents can be disclosed to Knutsen will be announced at Hade’s next court hearing at 9 a.m. on May 31 in Dept. 605 of the Fremont Hall of Justice.

A two-day preliminary hearing was also scheduled for July 5 and July 6. Both days of the hearing will be held at 2 p.m. in Dept. 605 of the Fremont Hall of Justice.

Hade was and booked into Santa Rita Jail on April 29 – several hours after Futi was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Futi was found around 11:20 p.m. April 28 during a house party near a Fremont home by Hyde Park and Yellow Stone Park drives, close to Auto Mall Parkway. He died two hours later.

A for Futi is scheduled for June.


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