Font ResizeLast year, an angry Tumua Fagota Siaumau swung a helmet and broke the jaw of his son's assistant football coach after Granger High School lost to Highland High.
But the 48-year-old man was tearful and apologetic during a Monday sentencing hearing in 3rd District Court.
Facing his victim, Siaumau got down on his knees, flung out his arms and said: "I ask that you forgive me."
After the hearing, Darius McCormick called Siaumau's plea "a little bit theatrical."
As for forgiving the man who left him with two steel plates and eight screws in his jaw, McCormick said he was not there yet.
"You try and get over the anger," he said. "But when my jaw pops and clicks, the same emotions come up."
Siaumau, of Anchorage, Alaska, was charged with second-degree felony aggravated assault, but pleaded guilty to a lesser third-degree felony count of aggravated assault.
Judge William Barrett sentenced Siaumau to 36 months probation, 90 days in jail, 150 hours of community service and an anger management course. The judge also ordered Siaumau to pay $34,000 in restitution for McCormick's medical bills.
The attack occurred Sept. 19 attack after the Granger Lancers lost 34-8 to the Highland Rams.
McCormick, 28, told the judge it was the team's fourth loss in a row and many players were distraught. As other players were boarding the team's bus, McCormick noticed Siaumau "screaming" at his son in Samoan.
"Then everything went black,' McCormick recalled.
Holding his son's helmet by the face mask, Siaumau had swung it against McCormick's left jaw hard enough to render him unconscious and knock him out of one of his shoes.
Defense attorney Tara Haynes told the judge that her client was swinging the helmet because he wanted to be alone with his son, but that he never meant to hit anyone.
Prosecutor Kristin Zimmerman countered that according to another coach, Siaumau had said, "Nobody talks to me and my son that way," prior to lashing out at McCormick.
Siaumau, who is apparently the minister of a church, repeatedly invoked the name of "God" during the court hearing. But the judge said at one point: "I don't think God had anything to do with this."
