Ex-con celebrates 5-year arrest anniversary in prison

A former convict who was just released this year following a five-year sentence was arrested again on the same charges that got him time in prison.

Last Tuesday, Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph Camacho imposed a $20,000 bail on 29-year-old Julian Muňa Sablan who was arrested for alleged burglary and theft.

According to Superior Court records, Sablan is a repeat offender with numerous criminal records every year since 2004. All of Sablan’s criminal cases included burglary, theft, and robbery.

Sablan recently completed a five-year sentence that dates back to Oct. 4, 2013, and he was just released this year before he was arrested again last Sept. 17 for theft. Sablan was later released to a third-party custodian last Sept. 26 but is now detained, again, at the Department of Corrections. Yesterday marked Sablan’s five-year arrest anniversary.

During the bail hearing on Wednesday, Sablan was charged with burglary, theft, and criminal mischief.

Sablan is set for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 9 followed by an arraignment hearing on Oct. 19.

The Office of the Attorney General will prosecute him; the Office of the Public Defender will represent Sablan.

According to the Department of Public Safety, officers responded to a burglary and theft incident last Sept. 14 at 9:51am at the Seoul One Restaurant in Garapan. An officer met with a woman and the restaurant’s chef on the second floor of the Seoul One Restaurant building who directed him to the slightly opened glass door where he immediately noticed a gray metal register on the floor.

Police later learned that there was a working camera that was unplugged and placed on the counter by the entrance. The camera was admitted as evidence.

On Sept. 18, police found a 32-gigabyte mini SD card in the camera while dusting it for fingerprints. After reviewing the surveillance footage that was recorded on the SD card, one of the suspects was identified as Sablan.

The surveillance footage also captured two other suspects. Suspect two was described as a skinny male wearing a foldaway bush hat, a T-shirt, and short pants. Suspect three was described as a heavyset male with shoulder-length hair, wearing his hat backwards above his forehead, and had on a printed T-shirt and short pants.

Sablan and the two other suspects allegedly broke into the restaurant, taking $3,477.39 worth of cash from the register and about $45 worth of beer.