Ex-convict gets 9-month prison term for extortion attempt, violating probation

Ex-convict Mario Olopai Sablan was slapped with a nine-month prison term for trying to extort $100 from a woman who lost her wallet at a poker arcade and for violating his probation.

Superior Court Associate Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio sentenced the 39-year-old Sablan last week to one-year imprisonment, all suspended except for three months, for receiving stolen property.

Kim-Tenorio sentenced Sablan to six months in prison for violating his probation in a previous criminal conviction.

Both sentences shall be served consecutively, which means the total prison term is nine months.

Sablan was given credit for time served. He is expected to be released on March 9, 2016.

Upon release, Sablan will be placed on supervised probation for three years.

The amended information charged Sablan with attempted criminal mischief and receiving stolen property. The Office of the Attorney General also filed a petition to revoke Sablan’s probation in a previous criminal conviction.

In his previous criminal case, Sablan received a suspended sentence of four years and 11 months.

Sablan pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property as part of a plea deal. The attempted criminal mischief charge was dropped.

He was represented in the case by assistant public defender Cindy Nesbit.

According to the factual basis of the plea agreement, on June 8, 2015 on Saipan, Sablan received a wallet belonging to Feng Ying Urumelog, although he was aware that it was stolen. At the time, Sablan was under probation.

When Sablan was brought for a bail hearing last June shortly after his arrest, Superior Court Associate Judge David A. Wiseman noted that he had just sentenced the defendant for theft in February 2013. Wiseman also noted Sablan’s 16 traffic cases that date back to 1993.

According to police, an officer responded to a theft incident last June 6 at Best Poker in western Garapan and met with Urumelog who complained that her wallet was stolen inside the poker arcade.

The officer reviewed the surveillance camera and identified the person who took the victim’s wallet.

On June 8, two police officers responded to Best Poker after the victim called for help.

The victim approached the officers and had her cell phone on speaker. The two officers heard a man on the other line demanding from the victim $50 for him and $50 for his friend if she wants to get her wallet back.

The man told the victim to meet them at 99 Cents Store in Garapan. The officers proceeded to 99 Cents Store, where the victim waited in the parking lot.

A few minutes later, the officers saw Sablan approaching the victim. When the victim got her wallet, police arrested Sablan.

In February 2013, Wiseman sentenced Sablan to 30 days for theft and placed him on probation for five years. The cases arose when he and a co-defendant stole $876 in cash from a poker machine at the U-Luck Poker in western Garapan.

In April 2012, Sablan, then an employee at the Division of Sports and Recreation was arrested together with John B. Reyes Jr. for allegedly burglarizing Garapan Elementary School and carting off more than $6,000 worth of equipment and other instructional materials. The Office of the Attorney General subsequently dropped the case.