MEDIA RELEASE / COMMUNITY ALERT
For Immediate Release No. 20210420-020
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
Second Suspect Arrested in Wells Fargo Homicide After Intensive Investigation
Update - A Torrance, CA resident was arrested on Conspiracy and Homicide charges after an intensive, months long investigation identified her as wrongfully identifying our victim in December’s homicide as the person who killed her boyfriend, therefore, mistakenly resulting in his death as retaliation.
San Mateo, CA – Earlier this month, SMPD detectives arrested Isaiah Reupena in Oklahoma for the shooting death of San Mateo resident, Melota Lasi, aka “Cutty Banks.” Lasi was killed on December 19, 2020 in the parking lot of the Wells Fargo Bank on W. Hillsdale Blvd. During the homicide investigation detectives learned Reupena’s brother, Lewis Reupena, had been shot and killed in a road rage incident in Southern California in August 2020. Lewis Reupena’s girlfriend, Amanda Young, along with the Reupena family and friends began their own “street investigation” into Lewis’s death and incorrectly believed Lasi was responsible. The California Highway Patrol (CHP) investigated Lewis’s homicide and confirmed Lasi was not involved.
Providing the Reupena family with information obtained during her amateur investigation, Young convinced Isaiah Reupena of Lasi’s guilt, causing him to drive to San Mateo where he shot and killed Lasi for revenge. He then drove back to Southern California and subsequently moved to Oklahoma, where he was ultimately arrested.
Young, who had moved to Oklahoma with the Reupena’s for a short time after the December homicide, returned to Southern California where she was arrested on a Conspiracy and Homicide warrant by SMPD detectives in Torrance, CA on April 15, 2021. She was extradited and is currently in custody in the San Mateo County Jail.
ARRESTED
Amanda Young, age 29, Torrance, CA
Charges: 187 PC – Homicide, 182(a) PC - Conspiracy
MEDIA CONTACT
Alison Gilmore
Public Information Officer | Office of the Chief
City of San Mateo Police Department
200 Franklin Pkwy, San Mateo, CA 94403
650-522-7626 | [email protected]
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