Man, woman ordered to stand trial for 2020 slaying of Bay Area rapper Cutty Banks
SAN MATEO – A man and woman have been ordered to stand trial on murder charges for a 2020 shooting in San Mateo that killed a popular Bay Area rapper known as Cutty Banks, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Isaiah Reupena, 36, and Amanda Young, 30, are accused in the killing of Melota Lasi, a 30-year-old San Mateo resident, on Dec. 19, 2020, in the parking lot of a Wells Fargo bank on West Hillsdale Boulevard, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office.
Investigators used surveillance footage to tie a Mercedes-Benz vehicle to the shooting and identified Reupena and Young as the suspects, prosecutors said.
San Mateo police alleged that Young was the girlfriend of Reupena, whose brother was fatally shot in a road rage case in Southern California in August 2020, and that the motive for killing Lasi, a rap artist who went by the name "Cutty Banks," was the mistaken belief that he was responsible for that shooting.
Both Reupena and Young were charged in the killing, and a four-day preliminary hearing ended Monday with a San Mateo County Superior Court judge ordering them to stand trial for murder and other charges, prosecutors said.
They both remain in custody on no bail status and are set to return to court on Jan. 18.