Dad assaults children who wouldn't get up for church, charges state

Dad assaults children who wouldn't get up for church, charges state

(Andrey_Popov, Shutterstock)


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

KEARNS — A man apparently upset with his children for not getting out of bed to go to church now faces criminal charges for assaulting them with a guitar, according to charging documents.

Lamatia Tapumanaia Sa, 60, of Kearns, was charged Thursday in 3rd District Court with child abuse, a second-degree felony; and child abuse, a class A misdemeanor.

On June 30, a 14-year-old boy was asleep in bed when Sa “tried to wake him up for church,” the charges state. “(The boy) decided to go back to bed and not get ready for church.”

Sa became upset by this and “picked up a guitar and attempted to strike (the boy) in the head,” according to charging documents.

The boy blocked the guitar from hitting his head, but Sa then hit the boy’s arm with the guitar four times, causing a broken arm, the charges state.

Another boy, 17, said he was awoken by Sa hitting him in the leg and hip with the guitar, and that the assault only stopped when the guitar broke, according to charging documents.

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Pat Reavy is a longtime police and courts reporter. He joined the KSL.com team in 2021, after many years of reporting at the Deseret News and KSL NewsRadio before that.

STAY IN THE KNOW

Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

KSL Weather Forecast