Pago Pago, AMERICA SAMOA — A young man who is on probation for stealing and burglary is now back in court on another stealing charge. Police arrested Timata Enosa Naea two weeks after he was released from the Territorial Correctional Facility (TCF) after serving a 28-month detention.

Naea made his initial appearance in District Court last week, where he asked the court for a preliminary examination (PX).

Naea is charged with stealing, a class felony, punishable by imprisonment of up to 7 years, a $5,000 fine or pursuant to A.S.C.A , a fine equal to twice the amount of gain from the commission of said crime, up to a maximum of $20,000, or both such fine and imprisonment.

Bail is set at $10,000.

If he posts bond, Naea is ordered to remain law abiding, not leave or attempt to leave the territory without the court’s permission, and not make any direct or indirect contact with the government’s witnesses, including the victim, which is the Bluesky Communications Company.

THE CASE

On Apr. 24th, 2020, an employee of the Bluesky Communications walked into the Tafuna Substation (TS) to report a crime, where an unknown male allegedly stole a phone from the company’s main office in Nu’uuli.

The representative from Bluesky told investigators that a male individual walked inside their main office at the Laufou Shopping Center in Nu’uuli on the morning of Apr. 22nd and made his way to where the display table is located. He walked around a few moments and it appeared he was trying to see if there was anybody looking at him.

He then reached out to the phone, a Samsung S20 located on the display table and placed it inside his bag and quickly walked out of the store and disappeared.

According to the Bluesky representative’s statement to investigators, the perpetrator’s action on the day of the alleged incident was recorded on video camera, and the recording was seen by a representative of the company two days after the alleged incident and the company immediately contacted police.

Investigators were able to get a copy of the video footage to view it, which confirmed the statement given by the reporting representative. The person inside the video footage was later identified by one of the police detectives as Timata Enosa Naea, the defendant in this matter.

After they obtained an arrest warrant from the court, police apprehended Naea two weeks ago at his home and he was transported to the TS for questioning where he was informed of his constitutional rights. Naea told investigators he understood his rights and he wanted to tell his side of the story.

Naea told investigators that he was just released from TCF on the first week of April after serving almost 3 years at the TCF for stealing, burglary and escape from confinement. Two weeks after his release, he went to Bluesky to meet his uncle however, everything went wrong when he entered the main office and allegedly took the phone without permission.

According to Naea, he gave the phone to another couple to use and the couple gave him $100 for the phone. Investigators were able to retrieve the phone from the couple and give it back to Bluesky.

PX

During the PX, the government called their only witness to the stand, Officer Jenny Irimk, who also is the lead investigator in this case.

Working as a police officer for over 6 months now, the witness told the court that she received her training during the 27th Police Academy and on the job training.

The government witness told the court that it was revealed during her investigation that Naea went inside the Bluesky Communications main office at the Laufou Shopping Center with the intention of stealing a phone.

in cross examination, defense attorney, Stuart asked the government’s witness the reason why the case against his client was reported to police two days after the alleged incident. The witness told the court that Bluesky only knew about the incident after two days when they viewed their security camera footage.

Stuart asked the witness again how she so sure that his client was the person of interest in this case. The government witness told the court that when the team of investigators viewed the video footage from Bluesky, a police detective who knows the suspect from his previous cases easily identified him from the video footage.

After hearing evidence of the case, Judge Elvis P. Patea found probable cause to bind Naea’s case to the High Court for arraignment.

Naea entered a not guilty plea to the single charge against him when he appeared in High Court last Friday for his arraignment. His next hearing is set for July of this year.

BACKGROUND

According to court files, Naea had previously been charged in 3 separate cases. One case against him was stealing. In another case, Naea was slapped with several charges including 4 counts of stealing; 3 counts of 1st degree burglary; one count of 2nd degree burglary; one count of escape from confinement, and the misdemeanor charge of alluding police officers.

In a third case, Naea was charged with one count of escape from confinement.

Under a plea agreement with the government, Naea agreed to plead guilty to stealing in the first case; and two counts of stealing and one count of first degree burglary in the second case.

In return, the remaining charges were dismissed.

Naea was 21 years old when he appeared before the court for sentencing in July 2018. According to Probation, Naea dropped out of school when he was 11 years old.

He had just served 28 months for the convictions when he allegedly stole the cell phone