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An ex-girl friend helps cops make the arrest of alleged burglar

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ausage@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Police arrested a man from Tafuna on the allegation that he unlawfully entered a home in Happy Valley and stole items from inside.

Taulagi Tufugalele appeared in Court last month for his initial appearance.

Tufugalele, who was convicted for receiving stolen property in 2017 and was placed on probation for two years, is charged by the government in two separate criminal cases.

In the first case, he is charged with two counts of second-degree burglary and two counts of stealing, both class C felonies, punishable by up to 7 years in jail, 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 a maximum of $20K, or both such fine and imprisonment.

In the second case, Tufugalele is charged with one count of unlawful possession of meth, and one count of unlawful possession of marijuana, both felonies, punishably by imprisonment from 5 to 10 years, a fine of up to $20,000 or both.

Preliminary examination is scheduled for next week.

THE CASE

On Mar. 10, 2022, a man called police to report that his Happy Valley home had been burglarized and several items were stolen from the house.

According to the caller, on Mar. 8, he instructed his wife and two sons to secure the house and make sure all doors were locked after they cleaned up the yard. The man said his wife and children went to the house and everything was squared away.

The next morning, Mar. 9, around 7a.m the man and his wife returned to the house and noticed that the back door was damaged and the front screen door was locked from the inside. The couple inspected the property and noticed that some of her belongings were on the ground in the back yard while some items were missing from the house and the garage. Several items were stolen from the house.

The couple also checked the small warehouse located at the back of the main house that was burglarized and noticed that several power tools that were kept inside were stolen.

That’s when the man contacted the TPS asking for police assistance. The man took pictures of the scene including outside in the yard and inside the house.

Several police officers arrived at the house and started to investigate the alleged burglary.

Police spoke to an eyewitness two days after the matter was reported regarding the alleged incident. The witness, a taxi driver, told cops that at a little past midnight of Apr. 8 after he dropped off a male passenger at the area, he observed four young male individuals walking around the house with flashlights. He said one of the young males stopped his car and asked if he had a screwdriver to fix his bike’s tire.

The witness told cops the young male who approached him is the son of a man who lives down the road.

According to the witness, the four males walked around the house and the yard before they disappeared.

Another witness came forward and offered police a piece of information that helped with their investigation. The witness gave investigators a huge lead in their case, saying that one of the men involved in the alleged burglary is known as “Fly”.

Fly was later identified as “Lele”, a.k.a Taulagi Tufugalele, the defendant in this case. According to the government, the defendant has a criminal record. He was previously been convicted in High Court for receiving stolen property and two misdemeanor stealing cases in District Court.

Investigators spoke to another witness who stated that on the night of the alleged incident he saw Tufugalele’s red four-door car parked in a dark area close to the house that was ransacked.

The witness further stated to police that he asked Tufugalele why his car was parked on that side of the road, and he told him he was waiting for a cousin, who was going to his girlfriend’s house to pick up her laptop and other stuff.

One week after the alleged burglary took place, a 39-year-old man contacted police and said he knew who burglarized his uncle’s home in Happy Valley.

According to him, a man involved came to him and asked if he wanted to buy his chainsaw for $150. He told the man that he didn’t want to get into trouble again — however, by the end of their conversation he agreed to buy the tool.

The witness said Tufugalele told him really needed the money to pay for his outstanding bill at the LBJ Hospital so that he could pick up an immigration clearance to renew his immigration ID.

The witness gave Tufugalele $70 and Tufugalele handed over to the witness the tool wrapped in a black ielavalava, along with a new t-shirt for free. The next morning, the witness contacted police and informed them about the item he received from Tufugalele.

Two weeks later, an investigator spoke to Tufugalele’s ex-girlfriend, requesting her assistance to set up a meeting with Tufugalele at a secure place. The investigator explained why he needed to speak to Tufugalele. The ex-girlfriend agreed.

On the day of the meeting, the defendant’s ex-girlfriend texted the investigators informing them that she and Tufugalele were talking inside her vehicle parked outside of a store in the Tafuna area.

Investigators arrived and approached the vehicle and discovered that their suspect was inside. Tufugalele was cuffed and placed in the police unit before he was taken to the TPS for questioning.

When questioned, the defendant told police that he and three other males entered the home through the back door. He said he took some items and his partners took some other items.

Tufugalele added that he returned some stuff to the victim and he was trying to figure out how to return the rest of the stolen items.

When asked if the 39-year-old witness accompanied him during the burglary, Tufugalele said no. He said the witness was his best friend, and he sold him a chainsaw a few weeks after the alleged incident for $70.

Before the defendant was transported to the TPS for an interview, a body search was carried out, where police found a glass pipe containing a white crystalline substance and two small stamp sized baggies containing green leafy substance.

The white crystalline substance tested positive for meth, while the green leafy substance tested and positive for THC, the active compound in marijuana.

When asked about the illegal drugs, the defendant said it was a gift from one of his friends in Vaitogi after he gave him several of the power tools that he had stolen from the Happy Valley home.

According to the victim, two males came by and returned several stolen items to him, saying the items were bought from Tufugalele on an unknown day and time.

One of the men told police that on the last week of March of this year, he received clothes and an electric drill from a man named “Flying”, a nickname for the defendant.