MATAIMOA ELISARA SENTENCED TO FIVE YEARS FOR REPEAT DRUG OFFENSE

A 52-year old man who admitted to growing marijuana plants on land belonging to a police commander, who is his relative, was last week sentenced by the High Court to five years in prison, because this is the second time the defendant has been charged in a similar case.

Mataimoa Elisara pled guilty in February this year to unlawful possession of a controlled substance under a plea agreement with the government. He admitted to planting eight marijuana plants on the farm land belonging to a police commander, who found the marijuana plants and reported the matter to police.

During sentencing last Friday, Elisara apologized for his crime and asked for another chance in life so he can be released from jail and return home to care for his family. He also said he believes that it's best for him not to carry out planting marijuana anymore but that he must find a legal way to earn a living.

He told the court that his family has accepted him back to return home. This prompted Chief Justice Michael Kruse to ask if the family included Police Commander Ta’ase Sagapolutele and the defendant replied “yes”.

Elisara also answered “yes” when he was asked again by Kruse if this was the same police commander who reported him to the authorities.

Attorneys for both sides didn’t offer any arguments or statements for sentencing, but left the matter up to the court’s discretion.

Before sentencing was handed down, Kruse first pointed out that this is the second time Elisara has been charged with this same type of crime and this means the defendant had not learned any lessons from the first time.

Kruse also said that it’s even worse this time around, because the defendant planted marijuana on the land belonging to a police commander. He then sentenced the defendant to five years imprisonment, and a $5,000 fine.

Kruse was accompanied on the bench with Chief Associate Judge Logoai Siaki and Associate Judge Fa’amausili Pomele.

INCOMING PASSENGER PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO DRUG CHARGE

The High Court has scheduled for next month the pre trial conference hearing for Christopher Sword after he entered a plea of 'not guilty' to one count of unlawful possession of a controlled substance — marijuana.

Sword appeared early this week for arraignment where he entered his plea through his attorney. The charge against the defendant stems from an incident which occurred when he arrived on a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Honolulu.

The K-9 with Customs at the Tafuna airport alerted Customs Officers to the defendant, who was standing in line. He was then taken to a small room at the Customs office where he was searched and was allegedly found with small plastic bags containing dried marijuana leaves. He was later taken into custody.

FA’AMANATU VESI FINED; TOLD TO GET A JOB INSTEAD OF STEALING

The District Court last week sentenced Fa’amanatu Vesi to 12 months probation after entering a guilty plea to misdemeanor stealing for breaking into a store in Tafuna and taking off with goods from the store.

Among the conditions of the probation are that the defendant pay $45.84 to the store for the goods that he stole and pay the court a fine of $75. He was also ordered to stay away from the store that was affected and to personally apologize  to the store owner.

Vesi had already served 14-days in jail after being arrested in April for the crime. The court demanded that Vesi find a job to provide for himself and his family instead of stealing from others.

ETEUATI MISI, OVERSTAYER, TOLD TO RETURN HOME IMMEDIATELY

The District Court this week sentenced Eteuati Misi to a one-year probation under the condition that he returns to his home country as soon as possible. He was also fined $50 and the court asked the government to locate the defendant’s sponsor in order to pay the fine.

Misi, 24, is from Samoa and he pled guilty to a misdemeanor public peace disturbance, which occurred during a party last month. The defendant was accused of making loud noises, using profanity, verbally threatening a couple and causing trouble.

After he was taken into custody, police learned that the defendant arrived in the territory on a 30-day permit which expired four months ago.