Sentence of former DJ Mettao reduced

From the two-year prison term he earlier imposed on Aziz Peter Mettao for setting fire to a car owned by Power 99 Studio, Superior Court Associate Judge David A. Wiseman has reduced the former disc jockey’s sentence to one year and eight months prison.

Wiseman made the reduction in order for Mettao to arrive on Saipan upon completion of his federal sentence without having to serve additional time in the CNMI since the sentences are to be concurrent.

Assistant public defender Benjamin Petersburg, counsel for the defendant, made the oral motion for a reduction of sentence at a hearing on Monday.

Petersburg told the court that his client is no longer in the CNMI and was taken into federal custody to serve his federal sentence.

In granting the motion, Wiseman added an additional probation condition of 500 hours of community service.

The judge ordered Mettao to report to the CNMI Office of Adult Probation within 30 days upon his release from federal prison.

Last Dec. 18, Wiseman ordered that the two-year prison term he imposed on Mettao shall run concurrently with Mettao’s two-year prison sentence in federal court over the same incident.

The judge said the sentence, however, shall be tentative unless the defendant starts serving his jail time in federal prison before the sentencing hearing in Superior Court.

Wiseman made the sentence tentative because he wants to make sure that the defendant will serve the jail term concurrent or within his two-year prison sentence in federal court.

Mettao, 28, was given credit for 420 days of time served. After release from prison, he will be placed on probation for two years.

Mettao pleaded guilty to reckless burning as part of a plea deal with the CNMI government.

He set fire to his former employer Power 99’s 2010 Hyundai Tucson, on Sept. 10, 2012, destroying the vehicle. He used beer bottles that he filled with flammable liquid to commit the crime.

In June 2013, he pleaded guilty in federal court to the charge of destruction of a motor vehicle, a charge that has no mandatory minimum period of imprisonment.

In December, the federal court sentenced him to two years in prison. Once he gets out, he will be placed on three years of supervised release.

Mettao was also required to pay $500 restitution to Sorensen Media Group. He was given credit for the time served.