3 sent to prison in beating of DJ Bell, another sentenced to jail

SALT LAKE CITY — By all accounts, there was desperation and panic in the aftermath of a drinking party in 2008.

The father of a then-4-year-old panicked in the early morning hours of July 4, 2008, when he woke to find his son gone, said Ricky Peace's attorney. Soon after, David James "DJ" Bell would watch helplessly as Peace and others broke into his home and pummeled him and his partner, Dan Fair.

"There are no winners in this," Bell said Monday after three men who assaulted them were sent to prison. A fourth person was sentenced to jail time.

Peace, 35, Ieti Mageo, 34, and Ietitaia Tavita Nuusila, 27, previously pleaded guilty to reduced charges of aggravated burglary, aggravated assault and rioting, all third-degree felonies. They were each sentenced Monday to zero to five years for each count, but 3rd District Judge Randall Skanchy ordered the sentences to be served concurrently.

They were also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $14,865 to Bell and Fair.

Tapululululu Latu, 31, was sentenced to 365 days in jail for attempted riot, a class A misdemeanor, but 180 days of her sentence was suspended. She will spend two years on probation when released.

On the night of July 4, 2008, several people broke through the door of Bell's South Salt Lake home and brutally assaulted him and Fair after a party. The neighbors believed Bell had kidnapped Latu's 2-year-old daughter and 4-year-old nephew. They threw a TV onto Fair's head, smashing his right eye socket. Bell sustained a mild traumatic brain injury, cuts on his feet and neck and permanent partial hearing loss in one ear because of the beating.

No one was initially charged in the assaults, but Bell was charged with kidnapping the children. Bell insisted that the children were being neglected and he offered to let them inside his home. A jury later acquitted him. Sometime later, prosecutors filed the assault- and burglary-related charges against seven of his neighbors.

On Monday, Bell called Latu a "liar and a bigot" and said she used a "barrage of hate speech" when she found the children at the home. He also named her as the one person primarily responsible for what happened.

"You are the cause of all of these problems," Bell told Latu. "You are the instigator. You're the reason we're all here today. This incident did not have to happen."

Fair said he awoke to Bell walking backward into the bedroom where he was sleeping while Latu was "screaming and yelling" with the two children in tow. He said she hit Bell so hard he fell to the floor.