Machete attack on Utah family resulted in severed fingers, multiple cuts - East Idaho News
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Machete attack on Utah family resulted in severed fingers, multiple cuts

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SANDY, Utah (KSL) — A reported stabbing in Sandy last month was actually a machete attack that resulted in amputated body parts, and a teen girl was forced to “play dead” to survive, according to court documents.

Recently released charging documents and a search warrant unveil new details in the attack.

Sione Fono Vaitai, 26, of Sandy, was charged last week in 3rd District Court with two counts of attempted murder, a first-degree felony; obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony; three counts of domestic violence in front of a child, a third-degree felony; and failure to stop at an officer’s command, a third-degree felony.

On May 12, Vaitai attacked his father and 14-year-old sister at their home near 10200 S. Mount View Drive, according to charging documents.

The teen and her 13-year-old sister were in their room when Vaitai entered holding a machete, according to charging documents. Vaitai held the knife to the 14-year-old girl’s throat and asked her if she believed in God, charges state.

The girls’ mother came into the room and started arguing with Vaitai. His father then entered the room and tried to get Vaitai away from the girl by telling him to punch him, according to charging documents.

Vaitai then began hitting his father with the machete, charges state.

“(Vaitai’s father) used his arms to block the blows and attempted to grab the machete from Vaitai. Vaitai pushed (his father) to the ground and continued striking him with the machete,” according to the charges.

The father suffered a skull fracture, and had one finger cut off and a second partially cut off, charges state. He also had “extensive lacerations” to both arms, including “open fractures,” according to the charges.

Vaitai then resumed attacking his sister, who also tried to use her arms to protect herself from the machete. He struck her right arm “several times, and she found she could no longer use her right arm,” charges state. She then “blocked the blows with her left arm and hand until she could no longer use her left arm.”

After being struck in the head, the sister began “playing dead,” but Vaitai “poked her in the chest with the machete, as if he was trying to make sure she was dead,” according to charging documents.

This article was originally published by KSL.com. It is used here with permission.

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