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Bill seeks to make home invasion a felony
Rep. Christopher Leon Guerrero (Cov-Saipan) pre-filed yesterday a bill making home invasion a felony and a separate violation under CNMI law, owing to the increased number of burglaries, robberies, or some form of home invasions, 16 of which also resulted in 16 homicides since 2005. Other crimes in victims’ homes also included rape, assaults, and other violent crimes.
“In spite of all these violent crimes committed against the people of the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth still does not have an anti-home invasion statute,” said Leon Guerrero, chairman of the House Judiciary and Government Operations Committee.
Leon Guerrero’s House Bill 18-181 seeks to provide more legal protection for citizens and residents who are victims of home invasion, and to make home invasion a separate violation under CNMI law.
The bill, co-authored by four other House members, seeks to amend Title 6 of the CNMI Code to add a new section on home invasion crimes.
Under the bill, a person is guilty of the offense of home invasion, a felony, if a person enters or remains unlawfully in an inhabited dwelling with the intent to commit a crime where a person is present or with the intent to use force or violence upon another person, or to vandalize, deface or damage another’s property in the course of committing the offense.
HB 18-181 proposes to make home invasion a felony, punishable by 10 to 25 years in prison, with a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence, without parole, and a fine not less than $10,000 but not more than $50,000, or both.
