A man convicted in the killing of a Safeway clerk in San Jose was sentenced Monday to 25 years to life in prison.
Tevita Tuakalau was trying to steal a bottle of liquor when the clerk confronted him during an overnight shift in June 2022. A judge told the courtroom on Monday that the incident started out as a fist fight and should have ended as a fist fight.
Both families were emotional during the sentencing hearing.
Manny Huizar was working his way through college as a Safeway clerk when he was killed by Tuakalau, who was 18 at the time.
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"He killed a brother, a best friend, a son," brother Guillermo Huizar Cornejo said. "He just killed me that day too."
That is the same message Cornejo gave the judge in his sentencing statement. The family wore the jersey of Huizar's favorite football team to court.
"What an incredible young man he was," prosecutor Carolyn Malinsky said. "Both to go to school and be working. And he was just trying to do what he thought was right, and he ended up losing his life."
Huizar's parents also spoke as Tuakalau's family fought through tears in open court. His mother said she feels said for Tuakalau's family as well because they too have lost someone.
Tuakalau's aunt and grandmother asked Huizar's family for forgiveness.
Cornejo said appreciates the family's gesture.
The judge said Tuakalau was either drunk or high, or both, at the time of the murder. She said he suffered from childhood trauma because of an abusive father.
