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Woman charged with attempted murder and arson

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ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A woman accused of burning her boyfriend’s house with the intention of killing him and his father told police that the reason why she planned to murder her boyfriend and his father is to pay back what her boyfriend had done to her many times.

The woman, Navy Patu made her initial appearance in Court last week.

She is charged with one count of attempted murder in the second degree (domestic violence), a class B felony, punishable by a term of imprisonment of not less than five years nor more than fifteen years; one count of 1st degree arson (domestic violence), a class C felony, punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to seven years, a fine of up to $5,000 but not less than $150, pursuant to 47.0402, or both.

Bail is set at $20,000.

Patu appeared in District Court on Tuesday for her preliminary hearing, however, she waived her rights to a PX and her case was bound over to High Court for further proceedings.

Yesterday, Patu appeared before Associate Justice Fiti Sunia for an arraignment where she entered not guilty pleas to the charges against her. Patu’s first pretrial conference is set for June 26th, while her jury trial is now scheduled for July 2027.

THE CASE

On Apr. 3, 2021 at about 10:20p.m, a man contacted the Tafuna Police Substation (TPS) reporting a fire in tje Taufete’e’s resident located in Nu’uuli. Several police officers responded to the call and observed a house on fire.

Officers met up with the man who reported the incident and interviewed him about what happened. While officers were speaking with the reporter, a man approached officers and identified himself as the landlord of the resident. Officers also interviewed the landlord.

When questioned by officers, the man who reported the incident stated that he resides near the Taufete’e house in Nu’uuli. While he was conducting an inspection outside the house, he noticed that there was a fire burning inside the Taufete’e’s residence. He then ran to the landlord’s house and informed him about the incident.

On the same date at about 10:49p.m, Central Police Station contacted the TPS reporting a female individuals by the name of Navy Patu, the defendant in this matter, who proceeded to the Central Police Station and made a confession that she initiated the fire at her boyfriend’s residence in Nu’uuli. Patu was transported to the TPS for further investigation.

Patu was Mirandized and she stated she wished to make a statement about what happened.

Patu told investigators that she was very angry with her boyfriend for many reasons. He used her to get money and sometimes he pretended he loved her but he was just pretending. She tried to make their relationship real but it appeared to her that her boyfriend was playing around with her life.

She stated that when she arrived in Nu’uuli at her boyfriend’s on the day of the incident, she discovered that her money that was kept inside her bag was missing. She was pissed off and decided to end the relationship with her boyfriend.

She opened the back door and the first thing she saw was the weed eater and gas cans. She went straight inside the house and grabbed her clothes that were in the room and she also grabbed her boyfriend’s clothes and stacked them in a pile and poured gasoline on top of the pile.

After doing so, she lit a fire and started burning the clothes thinking that the fire would burn down the whole house and kill her boyfriend and his father who were sleeping in the house at the time. She further stated that after she initiated the fire, she left the residence and went straight to Central Police station.

Patu verbally stated that her intention was to burn down her boyfriend’s house and make sure that her boyfriend along with his father died in the house. She also kept repeating the same conversation over and over during her interview with investigators.

Officers smelled a strong odor of alcohol on Patu’s breath and body. Red bloodshot eyes were also evident on the defendant, she was then transported to the Tafuna Correctional Facility (TCF).