Suspect in robbery at 2 poker parlors falls

Police arrested on Tuesday morning Dwight Lee D. Aldan, a 41-year-old man who was tagged as the suspect in the poker machine break-in and theft at Sun Palace Hotel’s poker room and at Martha’s Store poker room in Garapan.

Police served an arrest warrant to Aldan after he was spotted in San Antonio on Tuesday at 11am.

Aldan was taken to the Superior Court yesterday morning for bail hearing on charges of theft and criminal mischief.

Associate Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio maintained the $5,000 cash bail that the court earlier imposed in issuing an arrest warrant against Aldan.

Kim-Tenorio said a private counsel will be appointed to serve as counsel for Aldan.

Preliminary hearing will be on July 14 at 9am. Assistant attorney general Matthew Baisley appeared for the government.

Kim-Tenorio learned that Aldan has a pending bench warrant issued by the Superior Court on Oct. 15, 2002, for not appearing at a hearing in a traffic case. The bail was set at $130 cash.

Kim-Tenorio quashed the bench warrant and ordered the defendant to appear in court today, Thursday, at 9am for arraignment in that traffic case.

Police Detective Jeffrey I. Norita stated in his report that last June 25 at 4:55pm, the Department of Public Safety Central sent a police officer to Sun Palace Hotel in Susupe, where a theft incident was reported.

Norita said the responding police officer gathered that the theft was discovered after a hotel guest approached a front desk staff and informed her that one of the poker machines in the game room did not accept his money. The guest also noticed that wires were exposed from the front panel of the poker machine.

The front desk observed that wires were exposed, the panel was slightly opened, and money in bills was missing.

Norita said that last Thursday, June 30, he and another detective conducted a follow-up investigation at Sun Palace Hotel, where they met with an employee.

Norita said during the interview he learned that on June 25, from 4pm to 4:30pm, the employee received a call from another hotel staff that one of the poker machines had been tampered.

The employee said when he checked one machine, it showed damage to the front panel and the keyhole had been damaged.

The two employees then reviewed their surveillance footage that captured a male suspect wearing a blue T-shirt with a checkered pair of short pants, blue bush hat, and a blue Under Armour brand backpack.

The employee said when he viewed the surveillance, he observed the suspect open the panel and appear to be reaching into the machine.

Moments later, the suspect closed the panel, moved away from the machine, and tucked an object underneath his armpit.

The suspect placed an object underneath his armpit, placed it inside the backpack, and left the game room.

The employee said he realized that the object that the suspect took was the moneybox that contained a total of $5,231 in bills.

The employee said that in the morning of June 30, while he was reading the Saipan Tribune newspaper, he saw the photos of the suspect on the front page.

The employee asked their guest if he could identify the person on the newspaper.

The guest told the employee that the person on the front page is Dwight Aldan.

Saipan Tribune’s June 30 publication carried as top story the two theft cases at Sun Palace Hotel’s and at Martha Store’s game rooms. Along with the story, were two photos of the suspect and another photo of his get-away car taken from surveillance cameras at the two establishments.

The employee said he then logged onto his Facebook account and found an old photo of Aldan.

It was through this old photo that the employee managed to identify Aldan as the same person that was captured on the surveillance camera.

It’s not clear why detective Norita’s report did not include the Martha’s Store poker room incident in the case against Aldan. But DPS acting spokesman Jason Tarkong over the weekend disclosed that a Crime Stoppers’ tip led to the identification of Aldan as the suspect in the two cases.

Police said in the Martha Store’s poker room case, the suspect was able to run away with $30 in coins last June 28 in the afternoon. The suspect caused damage worth $500 to one machine.

Except the shirt, the suspect in Martha’s Store case was wearing the same attire in the Sun Palace Hotel’s game room incident. The suspect was wearing a blue boonie/bush hat with sunglasses on top of the hat, a gray hooded type sweater, checked blue and gray shorts, and slippers.

Police said the suspect drove away in an old model white Toyota Corolla four-door sedan with tinted windows.