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Teen gets 42 months for stealing FEMA battery, burglary
Patrick Nick H. Muña, 18, was slapped yesterday with a prison term of three years and six months for stealing a battery from a Federal Emergency Management Agency’s generator and for burglarizing a house in Garapan. The incidents happened weeks after Typhoon Soudelor ravaged Saipan.
Muña pleaded guilty to theft and burglary in the two cases.
Superior Court Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo sentenced Muña in both cases for a total of six years imprisonment, all suspended except for three years and six months.
Muña was given credit for time served. He is expected to complete his sentence on April 8, 2019. He will then be placed on supervised release for three years. He was ordered to pay a $100 fine, $100 court assessment fee, and $300 probation fee. He was required to perform 200 hours of community service.
Muña was ordered to write a letter of apology to FEMA and Dr. Chao Chiu and undergo drug counseling.
Muña was also required to cooperate with the Office of the Attorney General in the trial of his co-defendant, Bruce Iglecias.
Assistant public defender Matthew Meyer is counsel for Muña.
Assistant attorney general Heather Barcinas said that Muña stole FEMA’s generator battery last Sept. 10, at a time when the Commonwealth was vulnerable after Soudelor’s massive destruction to the island.
Police said an officer was dispatched last Sept. 10 to a reported theft of FEMA’s generator battery at a water pump station along Tun Sedugo Street near the U.S. Post Office.
As detectives were interviewing people in the neighborhood, an anonymous tipster advised police detective Catherine B. Pangelinan to check Muña. The tip led to a police chase and the arrest of Muña last April 8.
Pangelinan said that Muña admitted to stealing the battery. The battery was recovered on Sept. 11.
Muña also admitted that he and Iglecias were behind the burglary at Dr. Chiu’s residence in Garapan last Aug. 24 and the burglary at Flor’s Hair Salon and Girl Talk in the same one-story commercial building in Garapan.
Muña’s older brother, Roland Hernandez Muña, is also a notorious burglar who was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for burglarizing eight vehicles in San Vicente and violating his probation.
