COURT GRANTS GOV’T CONTINUANCE ON WRIGHT’S MOTION FOR A NEW TRIAL

After granting the government’s motion for a continuance, the High Court re-scheduled for Nov. 4th a new hearing date for defendant Samuel Wright, who had requested to void the jury decision, which found him guilty, and to set a new trial.

Wright, one of the three defendants in the robbery at gunpoint of the Gold Conda store in Faga’alu in May 2014, was convicted by a jury and was sentenced in May this year to 35 years in jail.

Wright’s co-defendants Falefatu Asi and Alatuna Simi each received 15 years imprisonment.

During a hearing early this week on Wright’s motion for a new trial, the defense says the request for a new jury trial is based on the fact that the defense has new information on the case and such information will be useful to their side during a new trial.

While the government hasn’t yet provided a written response to Wright’s motion, the government verbally argued that sentencing was handed down months ago and the defendant should have filed such a request 10-days after being sentenced.

The government’s main witness in Wright’s trial was Simi, whose testimony was strong enough to convict Wright, who pointed the gun at the store’s cashier. Asi passed away two weeks ago when other inmates inside the jail’s cafeteria found his body. 

(See Samoa News edition May 9 for details of Wright’s sentencing and background information.)

ALOIO TAULA

Aloio Taula has accepted charges against him filed by the Probation Office that he failed to comply with all conditions of probation handed down by the High Court three years ago. Among those conditions is that he pay the $1,000 fine and $300, which is the worth of goods, which belonged to a family, and he destroyed it.

A Probation Office report presented to the court this week shows that Taula had not paid a single penny of the fine as well as the $300 that he was ordered to pay. 

As usual in these types of cases where the defendant didn’t comply with all conditions of probation including not paying the required fine or any other monetary order, the defendant is sent to jail. And Taula is scheduled for sentencing next week.

It’s unclear as to why Taula, who is represented by the Public Defender’s Office, didn’t pay a penny of the fines ordered by the court.

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing more than a week ago, Public Defender Douglas Fiaui said that people are being brought back to court on probation violations because they haven’t paid the fines in felony cases to the High Court.

He said the Public Defender’s Office represents people “because they have no money but yet the court is revoking their probation because they have no money to pay a fine. To me that’s a travesty. You’re sending someone to jail because of a debt.”