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Unusually stiff sentence handed down in burglary case

American Samoa High Court building
ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A man with a prior burglary and stealing conviction was sentenced by the High Court last week to serve 7 years behind bars, a straight sentence, after he was convicted for stealing.

Lauolefiso Manu Naea, who has been in custody since his arrest in 2019 appeared before Chief Justice Michael Kruse last week for sentencing. He was represented by Assistant Public Defender Ryan Anderson while prosecuting the case was Assistant Attorney General, Laura Garvey.

Naea was initially charged with two counts of stealing and two counts of burglary in the second degree, all class C felonies, punishable by term of imprisonment of for up to seven years, a $5,000 fine or, pursuant to A.S.C.A. 46.2101, a fine equal to twice the amount of gain from the commission of said crime, up to $20,000, or both, and imprisonment.

However, under a plea agreement with the government, accepted by the court last month, Naea pled guilty to one count of stealing. With his guilty plea, the defendant admits that sometime in 2019, he entered a home unlawfully and stole several items.

The defendant did not wish to make a statement to the court when he was given a chance, however, his defense attorney, Anderson spoke on his behalf. Anderson asked the court for a probated sentence without any additional period of detention. He told the court that his client had served almost three years, which is a sufficient time for his detention in this matter.

He told the court that his client is only a young man— 28 years old — and he’s still trying to make good decisions on his own. He has a record in Court but he knows that another chance will give his client time to rebuild his life and become a mature person.

Anderson further stated to the court that his client was also detained in the Juvenile Detention Center while he was a minor. He believes that something needs to be done to help his client from his bad habits — of burglary and stealing.

Prosecutor Garvey echoed the defense’s submission and asked the court for a probated sentence, but included that the defendant should pay restitution in the amount of $1,050.45 for the items that he stole from the family, and $155 for the cell phone he stole from the victim.

However, the court disagreed.

First, it pointed out the defendant is not a young man and he has a history in the court system.

Then it stated that according to the Pre Sentence Report (PSR), one of the victims in this case is afraid that the defendant will continue to harm her family and steal her property, if he’s released.

Further, according to the PSR, the defendant is well known in the village for burglarizing people’s homes often and taking their property.

In delivering its decision, the court stated that based on the information from the PSR, it appears that the defendant never learned his lesson when he first appeared in court a few years ago, for his previous conviction.

The court then sentenced the defendant to 7 years in jail, a straight sentence. The court advised the defense attorney to explain to the defendant the meaning of a straight sentence.

BACKGROUND

Naea was convicted of stealing in 2015 and was sentenced to a period of probation of 5 years with one of the conditions that he serve 20 months at the Territorial Correctional Facility (TCF). His conviction stems from an incident where he broke into a house at night  and stole several items from the house and later sold it to other people to get money to buy beer for himself and his friends.