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.

Lasalo Avei, who is on probation, was arrested three weeks ago and made his initial appearance in District Court. He is charged with one count of unlawful possession of methamphetamine (meth) 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 Avei is able to post bond, the court has ordered standard bond restrictions.

THE CASE

Aveolela was arrested in front of a store in Ottoville after his uncle’s wife contacted police for help when she found out that Avei left their home after stealing several items from them. According to the couple’s statement to police, the items Avei allegedly stole from their home are worth in excess of $900.

Several police officers responded to the call and spoke with the couple regarding the matter. The man, who is the defendant’s uncle is sick and is unable to walk. They had brought Avei into their family to help them — the couple.

The woman told investigators that Avei has been with her for about ten months now. Since Avei came to live with the family, she noticed that some of her belongings have gone missing, including shoes, clothes, power tools, a laptop, phones 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, the power washer, chainsaw and the weed-eater were all gone. When she confronted Avei about the items, he yelled at her and told her that he had no knowledge about those items, becoming defensive.

The woman told investigators that a couple from their church told her and her husband that they saw their weed-eater at their neighbor’s house.

The victim also recalled another incident last month when her neighbor paid back $100 that they borrowed and she left the money on the table in her bedroom. The next morning, the money was gone and when she asked Avei regarding the money, he strongly denied taking it.

She also recalled two days prior to this alleged incident when she noticed that some of her son’s personal belongings such as clothes, a laptop, speakers, clothes and pairs of shoes were gone from his room. Again, when she asked Avei about the missing items, he denied any involvement.

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

On Saturday, Aug. 7th, Avei left the couple’s home around 1 p.m, and he returned around 7:23 p.m very drunk. His uncle scolded him for leaving the house without informing them of his whereabouts. Avei became upset and decided to leave his aunt’s home.

On the following morning, Aug. 8th, the couple woke up around 6:30a.m and realized that Avei was not in the house. They thought that maybe he was out walking, but it was when the sun went down on that same day that the victims realized that Avei was not coming back.

Around that time, the woman found that her purse containing $200 cash that was hidden under her bed was missing, along with jewelry — a watch, shoes and clothes belonging to her son, who is in Hawaii. That was when she contacted police for assistance.

Police went out looking for Avei, based on the description given by his aunt. Around 8:45 p.m on that same night, Aug. 8th, the Tafuna Police Substation (TPS) received a call from a man in Happy Valley in the Tafuna area, 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 Happy Valley, each holding a beer bottle.

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

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

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

When questioned by police, Avei admitted that he stole his uncle wife’s purse containing $200 cash and he used the money to buy food, beer and meth for him and his friend. He also told police he gave $50 to his friend.

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

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

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

BACKGROUND

Avei was convicted of felony stealing in February of 2017, 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 were 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 March of 2019, Avei was arrested for unlawful possession of meth. He was originally arrested for disturbing the public peace (PPD), but during a pat down, an officer discovered a glass pipe containing meth in his pants.

In November 2019, Avei was convicted of unlawful possession of meth and sentenced to 5 years probation under the condition that he serve a period of detention of 20 months, however, the court ruled that the 8 months Avei 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 Avei’s probation from 2017 but ordered him to continue on probation.