Guilty Plea in Kidnaping of Wife
A man who abducted his estranged wife and spent a week driving her through several Western states trying to persuade her to renew the relationship pleaded guilty Tuesday in South Bay Municipal Court to a single count of felony kidnaping.
Vai Sili Fetuli, 35, will be ordered to serve one year in county jail under a plea agreement, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Diana Teran.
Fetuli admitted that he forced Mary Jane Fetuli, 29, into her car at knifepoint as she left her job at Adray’s, a Torrance department store, to run a brief errand about 1 p.m. on Jan. 16.
When she failed to return, Fetuli’s co-workers--who knew that her husband had been harassing her at work--contacted police.
On Jan. 23, the Fetulis returned to Torrance, where Vai Fetuli checked into a motel room. Mary Jane Fetuli fled the room about 3 a.m. and returned to her San Pedro home, where she contacted police.
Family members told police that Fetuli had been abducted by her estranged husband on another occasion last fall, when he forced her to travel to Nevada with him. He returned her, unharmed, to her mother’s home in San Pedro about 12 hours later. The family did not report the incident to police.
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