Man allegedly chokes wife after she refused to help look for bananas

The Superior Court has imposed a $10,000 cash bail on a man accused of strangling his wife and manhandling her after she allegedly refused to follow him look for bananas at Obyan Beach in the dead of night.

Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph Camacho imposed last Tuesday a $10,000 cash bail on Venusto Mangarero, a man accused of strangling his wife over bananas.

Mangarero, 66, is currently facing charges of assault and battery, strangulation, and disturbing the peace.

Following the hearing, the judge remanded Mangarero back to Department of Corrections custody after he failed to post bail. The defendant was ordered to return to court for a preliminary hearing on Dec. 14, while his arraignment was set for Dec. 19.

According to court documents, at around 3:55am on Dec. 3, the Department of Public Safety received a call from a witness who reported a woman yelling for help in a white Toyota Tacoma behind the Francisco C. Ada-Saipan International Airport.

DPS immediately sent out an advisory to all police units to be on the lookout for the vehicle described by the caller.At 4:03am, police located the vehicle in a parking lot of a supermarket in Chalan Piao.

Police noted that Mangarero was seated on the driver side of the truck without a shirt while a woman sat in the front passenger seat appearing emotionally distressed and was avoiding eye contact.

After the officer asked Mangarero if they were okay, he told the officer they were and proceeded to enter the supermarket. With Mangarero gone, the officer asked the woman if she were okay, to which she replied in a shaky voice that Mangarero took her to the “woods” to choke her. When the defendant returned, he was placed under arrest.

Officers also noted that when the victim tried to walk, they saw that she had difficulty putting pressure on her right foot, had a rash on her neck, and blood underneath her right thumb. She claims that Mangarero hurt her foot with the vehicle door and choked her with both his hands, so she scratched his face.

She told another officer that Mangarero accused her of having an affair and hiding his phone from him, adding that she almost blacked out when Mangarero choked her.

Meanwhile, Mangarero told police that he and his wife had gone to Obyan Beach to look for bananas. When they got there, he said she asked him why he took her there before trying to get out of the truck.

He said he told his wife not to get out of the truck because it was dark, but she was not listening. So, he said he roughly pushed his wife feet into the truck, grabbed her neck with both hands, pushed her into the truck, and told her to stop it. He said they then went to the supermarket.