From San Mateo County Times
Hotel boss beaten by guests
By Michael Manekin
A 65-year-old hotel manager remains in critical condition after he was brutally attacked early Saturday morning by a group of rowdy hotel guests who were upset the man had attempted to break up their wild party, law enforcement officials reported Wednesday.
Vutoro Mualevu, 28, and Isei Tikoisuva, 21, both of Sacramento, allegedly smashed a beer bottle in the manager's face and repeatedly stomped and kicked him while he was on the floor. They didn't stop the beating until other hotel guests announced they had called the police, San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
"It was a pretty darn vicious beating - just beyond belief," Wagstaffe said. "The doctors were fearful this would be a murder case."
The two suspects had traveled from Sacramento to the Regency Inn in San Bruno, located at 411 San Bruno Ave., with the intention of partying with a number of friends in their hotel room, prosecutors said.
When the night manager knocked on their room door at approximately 4:30 a.m., the two men allegedly attacked their victim without warning. They ran away after hotel guests announced that the police were on the way, prosecutors said.
Within hours, police located the suspects in separate locations within several blocks of the hotel, Wagstaffe said.
Both Mualevu and Tikoisuva are being charged with attempted murder, assault and one felony count of aggravated mayhem, which applies in cases when victims suffer extensive disfigurement.
"If (the hotel manager) survives, he will require multiple facial reconstruction surgeries," Wagstaffe said.
The injured employee - "a balding, grandfatherly man," according to Wagstaffe - remains in critical condition, hooked to a ventilator in an area hospital with numerous bone fractures, including a possible skull fracture, prosecutors said.
A receptionist at the Regency Inn referred all questions about the beating to the manager, who was not available to comment before press time.
Mualevu and Tikoisuva declined to enter pleas to the multiple felony charges against them during an initial arraignment Tuesday.
The two men remain in custody without bail in the county jail. They are expected to return to Superior Court this month for a second arraignment.
E-mail Michael Manekin at mmanekin@bayareanewsgroup.com |
