Press Release
Twelve year sentence for 2015 drive-by Fairview shooting; Rodney Mataafa
May 19, 2017
(Anchorage, AK) – Today, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Michael Wolverton sentenced 26 year old Rodney Mataafa to spend 12 years in prison for a 2015 drive-by house shooting in Fairview.
On Sunday morning, March 15, 2015, APD officers responded to a bar-break shooting at the Kings X bar on 5th Avenue. Bar employees reported a parking lot melee with shots fired. Police responded and broke up the fight. Mataafa was one of the people involved. No arrests were made.
The evidence presented at trial revealed that less than an hour later, Mataafa drove by a residence in Fairview where a family was having a garage party. Mataafa fired multiple shots from a handgun. Witnesses reported that, as Mataafa shot, occupants of his car yelled, that this was “the wrong house…” Mataafa fired at least seven shots at the house. One of Mataafa’s bullets struck a man in the leg. At least one shot penetrated the wall and smashed a coffee cup on a kitchen counter. At the time, the house was occupied by a family – including several small children.
At the time of the shooting, Mataafa had been released on parole supervision for a 2009 pistol-whipping robbery of a 5th Avenue bicycle ice cream vendor. In that case, Mataafa and his companion pistol-whipped the vendor and got away with a box of ice cream treats and two $2 dollar bills from the vendor’s tip jar.
At the sentencing hearing, prosecutor James Fayette noted that Mataafa had tattooed the words, “THUG LIFE” on the fingers of his hands – and argued that Mataafa’s record of unprovoked violence against strangers -- fit the words he used to describe himself to the world. Fayette also prosecuted the 2009 case.
On May 3, 2016, Mataafa was convicted of assault in the first degree and weapons misconduct after a two week jury trial. At Friday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Wolverton stated, “There is nothing to mitigate your conduct...nothing to justify what you did. This was utterly pointless conduct that resulted in damage to people’s lives…”
Judge Wolverton imposed ten years to serve in the 2015 case and added two consecutive years on the probation case, for a total of twelve years to serve.
CONTACT: Assistant District Attorney James Fayette at (907) 229-2059. More information about the Anchorage District Attorney’s Office is available at http://www.law.alaska.gov/department/criminal/adao.html.
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Department Media Contacts: Communications Director Patty Sullivan at patty.sullivan@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6368. Information Officer Sam Curtis at sam.curtis@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6269.