Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A man with prior convictions for stealing and unlawful possession of illegal drugs is back in court — once again charged with both. This time, he’s accused of stealing money from his aunt to buy meth for himself and his friends, and he was found with meth in his possession when arrested.

Chris Aveolela, who is on probation, was arrested by police two weeks ago and made his initial appearance in District Court last week. He is charged with one count of unlawful possession of methamphetamine and one count of stealing, both felonies along with one count of disturbing the public peace (PPD) at his village.

Bail is set at $10,000.

If Aveolela is able to post bond, the court has ordered standard bond restrictions.

THE CASE

Aveolela was arrested in front of his friend’s home in Kokoland after his aunt contacted police for help when she found out that his nephew (defendant) left her home after stealing several items from her house. According to the victim’s statement to police, the items her nephew allegedly stole from her home are worth in excess of $1,000.

Several police officers responded to the call and spoke with the victim regarding this matter.

The victim told investigators that her nephew, Christ Aveolela has been with her for about four months now. Since Aveolala came to visit her, she noticed that some of her belongings have gone missing, including shoes, clothes, power tools, a laptop and money.

She recalled the other day where she checked on her husband’s power tools inside the garage and discovered that the power saw and the weed eater were gone. When she confronted her nephew about the items, he told her that he had no knowledge about those items.

The victim also recalled another incident last month when her neighbor paid back $50 the neighbor borrowed and she left the money on the table inside her bedroom. The next morning, the money was gone and when she confronted her nephew regarding the money, he denied taking it.

She also recalled two days prior to this alleged incident when she noticed that some of her son’s personal belonging such as clothes, a laptop and pairs of shoes were gone from inside his room. When she confronted Aveolela, he kept denying any involvement.

According to the victim, that’s when she started to realize that her nephew was stealing things from her home.

On Saturday, May 22rd, Aveolela left his aunt’s home around 1 p.m, and he returned around 9:23 p.m very drunk. His aunt scolded him for leaving the house without informing her of his whereabouts. Aveolala was upset and decided to leave his aunt’s home.

On the following morning, May 23rd, the victim woke up around 7 a.m and realized that her nephew was not in the house. She thought that maybe he was out walking, but it was when the sun went down on that same day that the victim realized that Aveolela was not coming back.

Around that time, the aunt found that her purse containing $410 cash that was hidden under her bed was missing, along with 2 big fine mats. That was when she contacted police for assistance.

Police were out looking for Aveolela, based on the description given by his aunt.

Around 10:45 p.m on May 23rd the Tafuna Police Substaton (TPS) received a call from an elderly man in Kokoland requesting police assistance regarding two men who are very intoxicated and making unreasonable noise in front of his home.

Police responded to the call and observed two male individuals standing in front of a residence in Kokoland, each holding a beer bottle.

When police arrived at the scene they easily recognized that one of the two male individuals matched Aveolala’s description given by his aunt. Aveolela was placed under police custody after he identified himself to police as Chris Aveolela.

(His friend was also placed under police custody and was later arrested and charged for disturbing the public peace. No drugs were found on Aveolela’s friend during a body search by police)

Before Aveolela was transported to the TPS for further investigation, a standard search was done and during the body search, officers discovered a black purse in Aveolela’s possession. When asked who owned the purse, Aveolela replied, “It belongs to my aunt.”

When questioned by police, Aveolela admitted that he stole his aunt’s purse containing $410 cash and he used the money to buy food, beer and meth for him and his friend. He also told police he gave $100 to his friend.

Police also discovered a hard object inside Aveolela’s rear pocket. Police pulled the object out and realized that it was a glass pipe (commonly used to smoke meth) containing white crystalline substance.

When asked about the glass pipe, Aveolela admitted that the glass pipe belonged to him and he bought it from a man at the area called Le Filifili.

The white crystalline substance was later tested and the results were positive for methamphetamine.

BACKGROUND

Aveolela was convicted of felony stealing in February of 2018, and subsequently sentenced to 5 years probation under the condition that he serve 20 months detention in jail.

However, he was given a huge break by the court when he was credited with the 8 months he served in pretrial confinement; the remaining 12 months was stayed, as long as he complied with all conditions of probation. He was also ordered to pay a $500 fine within 8 months, and secure gainful employment.

One year later in February of 2019, Aveolela was arrested for unlawful possession of methamphetamine. He was originally arrested for disturbing the public peace (PPD), but during a pat down, an officer discovered a glass pipe containing methamphetamine hidden inside his pants.

In October 2019, Aveolela was convicted of unlawful possession of methamphetamine and sentenced to 5 years probation under the condition that she serve a period of detention of 20 months, however, the court ruled that the 8 months Aveolela served in jail while awaiting the outcome of his case was sufficient and he was released and ordered to comply with all conditions of his probation.

The court also decided not to revoke Aveolela’s probation from 2018 but ordered him to continue on probation.