Notorious burglar pleads guilty to another burglary

McPeterson C. Tipengeni, a 22-year-old notorious burglar, pleaded guilty on Wednesday for breaking into another house in Garapan to steal food.

Tipingeni, a Chuukese, pleaded guilty to burglary as part of a plea deal. He will be sentenced on Sept. 9, 2015 at 1:30pm.

Tipingeni, through assistant public defender Matthew Meyer, waived his right to have a presentence investigation report.

Assistant attorney general Emily Cohen appeared for the government. Superior Court Associate Judge David A. Wiseman presided.

The Office of the Attorney General charged Tipingeni with one count of burglary. The OAG also filed a petition to revoke Tipingeni’s probation in his 2013 burglary conviction.

Tipingeni’s latest plea deal resolves the two cases.

Under the agreement, he shall be sentenced to between zero days and three years. He will be given credit for time served.

According to the factual basis of the plea deal, on May 5, 2015 on Saipan, Tipingeni broke into a woman’s home with the intent to take food.

Tipingeni will be prohibited from having or indirect contact with the victim and New Wave Dental during the three years of supervised probation. He will be required to write a letter of apology to the victim, perform 300 hours of community service, and pay a $100 fine plus court costs.

Police detective Daniel T. Joab stated in his report that the victim called the 911 last May 5 at 6:37pm after she saw a man in her backyard, looking into her kitchen window.

The victim told the responding officer that she was taking a nap on the sofa when she heard a noise in the backyard and saw a man. She shouted at the man, who then immediately climbed over the fence to the other side of the house.

The woman also disclosed that a day before, at 10pm, while she was working on the computer in the living room, she saw the same man trying to enter her house. She shouted at the suspect, who was later identified as Tipengeni, to close the door, but he walked away.

While two police officers were making a routine patrol in Lower Miha the following day, they saw Tipengeni, who was lying on the ground near an abandoned house in Lower Miha.

The victim was brought to the location, where she identified Tipengeni as the man who entered her house twice.

Police learned that Tipengeni’s aunt also filed a complaint after he also burglarized her house last Feb. 17.

In September 2013, Wiseman sentenced Tipingeni to nine months for entering into a hotel staff housing in China Town, Garapan, in the early morning hours on New Year’s Day in 2013, traumatizing a 13-year-old girl.