Chief Justice Michael Kruse sentenced a man to ten years in jail, after he admitted to his crimes in a sex related case involving two of his stepdaughters, ages 13 and 16.

(In the interest of protecting the victim's identities, Samoa News is withholding the defendant’s name as he is their stepfather.)

The Attorney General’s office filed two criminal cases against the defendant. In each case, the stepfather was charged with sodomy, deviate sexual assault, sexual abuse first degree, incest, endangering the welfare of a child and third degree assault. 

The defendant pled guilty to sexual abuse in each case, while the government moved to dismiss all remaining charges.

During sentencing last Friday, the defendant apologized for what he had done and asked the court to allow him a second chance to return home and care for his family and his children.

At the initial sentencing hearing in this matter held last month, the court heard from the defendant’s wife that one of the two girls involved in this case has been sent to Hawai’i while the second girl is awaiting her fare to be paid, then she will be going as well. The woman further told the court there is another female child at home and that’s her daughter with the defendant.

She then asked the court for a second chance to allow her husband to return home.

However Chief Justice Michael Kruse raised the concern that there are other female children in the family when the defendant is released from jail. Assistant Public Defender Joel Shiver asked the court to place the defendant on probation so he can be released early from jail and tend to the needs of his family.

The prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Tiffany Oldfield begged to differ — and asked the court to sentence the defendant to the maximum allowable under the law due to the seriousness of the offense in this case.

The judges took a while when deliberating the appropriate sentence. For the first sex case, the stepfather was sentenced to five years in jail, and for the second sex case, the defendant got an additional five years. The Chief Justice ordered that each sentence will be served consecutively, meaning the defendant will serve the full ten years.

The stepfather was ordered to be registered as a sex offender and undergo HIV testing.

According to the government’s case, the incident came to light when it was reported to the police that the stepfather was sexually abusing both his step daughters ages 13 and 16.

Court filings say the first incident with the 13 year old occurred in November 2013 and the incident with the 16 year old occurred earlier in the year — both incidents alleged the defendant inappropriately touched each girl.

The government’s case claims the victims told police the sexual incidents occurred when their mother left for Hawai’i. They said it happened when their stepfather got off from work, he performed sexual acts on the girls on separate occasions and told the victims not to tell anyone.