Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A young man who is on probation for stealing and burglary is now back in court on another stealing charge. Police arrested Reupena Meki five months after he was released from the Territorial Correctional Facility (TCF) after serving a 28-month detention.

Meki made his initial appearance in District Court last month, where he asked the court for a preliminary examination (PX).

The government has filed two criminal cases against Meki.

In the first case, the defendant is charged with stealing, a felony, punishable by imprisonment of up to 7 years, a $5,000 fine or pursuant to A.S.C.A, a fine equal to twice the amount of gain from the commission of said crime, up to a maximum of $20,000, or both.

In the second case, the defendant is charged with one count of unlawful possession of methamphetamine (meth) and one count of unlawful possession of marijuana, both unclassified felonies, punishable by a term of imprisonment from 5-10 years, a $20,000 or both.

Bail is set at $10,000.

If he posts bond, the defendant is ordered to remain law abiding and other usual restrictions, including staying away from the victim, the owner of a store in the Tafuna area.

THE CASE

On Apr. 24th, 2021, the owner of a store in the Malaeimi area walked into the Tafuna Substation (TPS) to report a crime, after an unknown male individual allegedly stole a phone and an electronic tablet from her store.

The alleged incident was recorded on video camera, and the recording was seen by another employee one day after the alleged incident and the owner then immediately contacted police.

Investigators were able to get a copy of the video footage to view it, which confirmed the statement given by the storeowner.

The person on the video footage was later identified by one of the police detectives as Reupena Meki, the defendant in this matter. Apparently Meki was familiar to police because he was involved in one of the burglary cases they investigated a few years ago where Meki and two other male individuals were suspects.

Police apprehended Meki last month at his home, with an arrest warrant in hand, and he was transported to the TPS for questioning where he was Mirandized and he said he wanted to tell his side of the story.

Before Meki was transported to the TPS for questioning, he was patted down and drugs were found in a small black pouch during the body search. Inside the pouch, a glass pipe containing white crystalline substance, along with a small stamp-sized baggie containing green leafy substance was found.

Test of the crystalline substance yielded positive for meth and for the green leafy substance positive for THC, an active compound in marijuana.

Meki told his side of the story, saying he stole the items to give as a gift to his girlfriend, and that was not why he went into the store.

However, according to Meki, instead he gave the phone and the Tablet to another woman to use and in return she gave him $80. Investigators were able to retrieve the phone and the Tablet from the woman and gave it back to owner of the store.

PRELIMINARY HEARING (PX)

During the PX, the government’s only witness was the lead investigator in the case. She told the court that it was revealed during her investigation that Meki went into the store with the intention of stealing a phone because he was just released from prison and he wanted a cell phone to contact his friends.

After hearing evidence in the case, the court found probable cause to bind Meki’s case to the High Court for arraignment.

Meki entered a not guilty plea to the single charge against him when he appeared in High Court two weeks ago for arraignment. His next hearing is set for October.

BACKGROUND

According to court files, Meki had previously been charged in two separate cases. One case against him was stealing. In another case, Meki was slapped with several charges including two counts of stealing; two counts of 1st degree burglary and one count of 2nd degree burglary.

Meki was 21 years old when he appeared before the court for sentencing in Oct. 2016. According to Probation, Meki dropped out of school when he was 11 years old.

He had just served 28 months for the convictions when he went inside a home in Iliili and stole a laptop and a cell phone while the owner was cleaning his backyard.