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Judge Sunia instructs a young man to change his life — or else

District Court Judge, Fiti Sunia

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — District Court Judge, Fiti Sunia has instructed a 20-year-old to change his lifestyle or otherwise, he will find himself behind bars for the rest of his life.

The judge told John Matagilele that he will end up in jail if he continues to be involved in incidents like the one earlier this year, when he was one of the students involved in a fight while intoxicated.

Matagilele appeared in court earlier this week for his pretrial conference; however, when his case was called, prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General, Jason Mitchell informed the court that they have reached an agreement with the defense.

According to terms of the agreement, Matagilele agrees to plead guilty to the charge of Under Age Drinking, and the remaining charges of public peace disturbance and third degree assault will be dismissed.
Matagilele admits that earlier this year in March, he engaged in a fight with other students while he was a senior at Tafuna High School. Matagilele further admits that he was intoxicated during the time he was arrested by police and he did this while he was only 20 years old.

Matagilele graduated from high school in June of this year, and he’s employed at the cannery as a fish cleaner.

In delivering his decision, Sunia told Matagilele that he needs to change his life by carefully deciding who to associate with, because if he continues to behave this way, something more serious will happen to him in the future, and he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

As a condition of his 12-month probation, Matagilele is ordered to pay a $100 fine, remain law abiding, and visit the probation office every month.