Teulilo stands trial 6 years after murdering his wife on Rock Island | News

WATERVILLE – Testimony began today in Waterville in a murder trial that has dragged on for six years.

Ului Lekepa Teulilo faced a Douglas County Superior Court jury on charges of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Peggy, who was found dead in their Rock Island trailer in July 2018. Teulilo, now 74, has been in jail on $500,000 bail since his arrest shortly after the murder. He denies killing his wife, who was 68 at the time of her death.

Teulilo sat with his head bowed as Douglas County Prosecutor Gordon Edgar showed photographs from the bedroom where Peggy Teulilo was found dead and questioned the former deputy sheriff who discovered her body.

Then-Deputy Bill Black was dispatched to search for Peggy when she failed to show up for work that day. He entered the trailer after several attempts to reach Peggy failed.

“From where I was standing, I could see that there was a body at the foot of the bed,” Black told the jury under questioning by Edgar.

Peggy Teulilo suffered “significant facial injuries,” Black recalled. Edgar said the medical examiner's office showed three circular skull fractures and a hole in the bridge of her nose.

The head trauma was so severe that investigators initially believed she had died from a gunshot wound. She also suffered five broken ribs and severe trauma to the cartilage of her windpipe.

Teulilo's attorney, Richard Gilliland, did not make an opening statement or cross-examine Black during his morning testimony. Nor did he cross-examine Michael Sines, the Cashmere man who hired Peggy as a home caregiver and called RiverCom headquarters when she failed to show up for work on July 25, 2018.

Peggy had previously reported incidents of domestic violence by Teulilo – most recently on July 24, the day before her death – and told Sines and others that she was planning to escape her husband. Douglas County sheriff's officials said Teulilo admitted to previously threatening his wife with violence.

Delays in the Teulilo trial included several appeals by the defendantincluding a lawsuit before the Supreme Court in Washington, arguing that the police search during which Black discovered his wife's body was illegal. The judges rejected this argument 7-2.

The trial is expected to last throughout the week.