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The devil is out there and busy — Another man convicted of assault blames the devil

American Samoa High Court building
ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The 45-year-old man from Samoa who has two different names in the court system, was ordered by the court to depart the territory and remain outside of its borders upon release from the Territorial Correctional Facility (TCF), after being convicted of 2nd degree assault.

Filipo Mulipola, also known as Alfred Mulipola appeared before the Court last week for sentencing. He has been in custody since his arrest in 2018, unable to post his $25,000 surety bond.

Mulipola was initially charged with first-degree assault, a felony, and two misdemeanor charges, third degree assault and public peace disturbance. But under a plea agreement with the government, Mulipola pled guilty to second-degree assault.

With his guilty plea, Mulipola admits that on or about Oct. 30, 2018 he caused severe injuries to his neighbor by striking his back and left shoulder with a machete. Mulipola told the court it was his anger that caused him to injure his neighbor.

Mulipola apologized for his actions to the court, the government and the people of American Samoa for breaking the law, and humbly begged the court for another chance to straighten up his life.

He blamed the devil for his getting upset quickly and resorting to violence.

“I want to go home to care for my wife and children. I’m truly remorseful for what I did, it was not me who stirred up everything, it was the devil who was living inside me who tempted me to act violent when I’m angry,” Mulipola told the court.

He admitted to the court that he has an anger problem and he needs to control it. The only way he knows to control his anger is to go to church every Sunday and leave his old life behind.

“I want to change my life and be a good man. I don’t want to go back to prison anymore. I want to have a happy family and I promise that I will never break the law again,” Mulipola concluded with tears in his eyes.

Defense attorney, Rob McNeill asked the court to sentence his client to a probated sentence, with a condition that the defendant leave the territory upon release from prison.

McNeill told the court that every time he spoke to Mulipola about the incident that landed him in court, he always told him that he’s truly remorseful for what he did, and he wanted to change his life.

Before delivering its decision, the court stated that Mulipola was convicted of 2nd degree assault. The facts of the case include using a machete to cause severe injury to man who is his neighbor.

However, according to the court database, Mulipola was convicted by the District Court of 3rd degree assault in 2008. The fact of what happened back 12 years ago was that, the defendant went after his sister with a machete, while his sister was holding her 2-year-old child.

According to the court, after seeing the father’s action on that day in 2008, the defendant’s 6-year-old daughter then intervened and tried to stop her father from hurting her aunty. However, Mulipola then assaulted her by slapping her in the face, causing her to fall on the ground.

The court then sentenced Mulipola to 5 years imprisonment, execution of the imprisonment term was suspended, and the defendant was placed on probation for 5 years under certain conditions.

He was ordered to serve a period of detention of 20 months at TCF without release. All but 12 months of that detention was stayed, and the defendant was ordered to depart the territory and remain outside of its jurisdiction for the period of probation.