Two county jail cell mates already awaiting trial on separate murder cases will stand trial on charges stemming from a foiled escape plot next February.
In addition to first-degree murder charges, Bobby Tran, 30, and Senituli Penisoni, 25, are accused of trying to escape from the San Mateo County Jail, possessing dangerous weapons and causing more than $400 in damage to a cell with four hacksaw blades. The felony charges will likely be consolidated with their eventual murder cases.
Tran is suspected of slicing up a young woman with a chain saw and hiding the parts for three years in a Daly City storage locker. Penisoni is fingered in a March 2004 East Palo Alto drive-by shooting that left one man dead and another injured.
Tran and Penisoni were housed together on a third-floor cell of the Maguire Correction Facility. Around 9:40 p.m. Feb. 17, sheriff's deputies heard intermittent sawing sounds and found the pair sawing through one bar on an exterior window. They had only made it through one half-inch of the bar. Authorities also found three one-pound fishing weights and a pile of socks which they believe were to be used as weapons once the weights were placed inside.
Tran and Penisoni are in custody in lieu of $50,000 bail as well as the earlier cases. Each already faces possible life sentences for the murders. The new three felonies add up to three extra years.
Each defendant is scheduled for individual murder trials in January. The jail break is scheduled for Feb. 27.
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