Douglas County Murder Case Going To State Supreme Court

The murder case of a 72-year-old Rock Island man is being moved to the state Supreme Court before going to trial in Douglas  County.

The high court has agreed to hear Ului Teulilo's claim that officers should have gotten a search warrant before entering his home, where they found his 68-year-old wife dead from gunshot wounds.

A deputy entered the residence and found the body of Peggy Marie Teulilo after a friend called Rivercom and asked for a welfare check.

The state Supreme Court will decide whether Washington's law allowing for searches without a warrant in certain cases is still valid after a U.S. Supreme Court decision from last year.

Washington's law allows for the warrantless searched if there's need of immediate emergency assistance. The U.S. Supreme Court determined a provision allowing for the searched was not justified in one case.

In an Affidavit of Probable Cause, detectives said Peggy Teulilo had made two specific prior complaints that  Ului Teulilo had threatened to shoot and kill her.

Her second complaint came the day before she was found dead on July 25, 2018. In that complaint, she said she had planned to move out of the home and take out a domestic violence restraining order against her husband.

The state Supreme Court agreed to consider Ului Teulilo's murder case in late October.

He’s been in the Chelan County Jail since July 21 on a 2^nd Degree Murder charge. He has a $500,000 bail.

Teulilo's case had been scheduled to go before the Douglas County Superior Court after moving through the system over four years. Oral arguments before the Supreme Court in January.us supreme court.