22-year-old says he washed feet in cell toilet after Santa Rita Jail homicide

DUBLIN, Calif. - A 22-year-old Oakland man has been charged with murder stemming from the death of his Santa Rita Jail cellmate, where he told deputies that he did it and then washed his feet in the toilet afterward, according to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.

Paula Fa'aui was arrested in connection with the March 18 death of Elias Angel Rivera, 37, in Housing Unit 6, Cell B 5, according to a declaration of probable cause by the sheriff's office. 

The Alameda County District Attorney charged Fa'aui with murder on April 10. 

Authorities did not provide a motive for the death, but the sheriff's declaration notes that Rivera suffered "blunt force trauma to the head." 

Fa'aui and Rivera were the only two people in that cell. 

In an interview with deputies, Faaui "provided a full confession," admitting to "punching, stomping and kicking the victim's head," the sheriff's declaration alleged.  

During the interview, Fa'aui said he "washed his feet in his cell toilet" afterward. 

Rivera was taken to Eden Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Fa'aui was arrested by Oakland police in 2023 on another murder charge. 

In that case, Fa'aui was accused of shooting and killing Julian Carillo-Garcia, 31, in East Oakland days before in an apparent robbery gone wrong.

Police later determined Fa'aui's wife, Sarah, was in a nearby vehicle waiting for him at the time of the killing, according to news reports from the time, and that she called police to claim the vehicle had been stolen. She was charged with being an accessory to the murder.

Rivera had also been a murder suspect before he was killed in his maximum-security housing unit. 

In 2022, the California Highway Patrol arrested Rivera, who they say had been allegedly driving with a suspended license after a DUI conviction when he killed 30-year-old Heidi Gerrish of Tucson, Arizona, and injured her partner, brother and sister-in-law on Highway 24 in a wrong-way collision.

A memorial website for Gerrish describes her as a board member of the University of Arizona Lutheran Campus Ministry who was heavily involved in the Lutheran church and was traveling to the Bay Area to celebrate her sister’s graduation from the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley.

At the time of the crash, Rivera was on probation, according to the criminal complaint obtained by the Bay Area News Group.

He had a 2019 misdemeanor drunk driving conviction, as well as three convictions for driving on a suspended license, according to court records.

Rivera is the 72nd person to die at Santa Rita Jail since 2014, according to a review of in-custody deaths by KTVU. He is the first person to die there this year.

Homicides are not that common at Santa Rita Jail. The last in-custody homicide occurred in September 2023, when Yuri Brand was killed, allegedly by his cellmate.