By Bryan Manabat
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
A MAN previously convicted in multiple burglary cases is facing new charges after he was arrested for breaking into a parked vehicle on Capital Hill earlier this month.
Ronald Leon Guerrero Ealey Jr., who was released from prison in Sept. 2025 after serving time for burglary, is now charged with burglary and theft in connection with a Jan. 17 incident involving a vehicle parked at a residence.
Ealey appeared in Superior Court on Monday morning for a bail hearing before Associate Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio. He was brought to court in the custody of the Department of Corrections.
During the hearing, Assistant Attorney General Frances Demapan told the court that Ealey has five prior burglary and theft convictions dating from 2022 to 2024. She noted that each charge carries a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment. Assistant Public Defender Robert McNeil was appointed to represent him.
Judge Kim-Tenorio set Ealey’s bail at $5,000 cash and remanded him to the custody of Corrections. She ordered him to return to court for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 2 at 10 a.m. and for arraignment on Feb. 9 at 9 a.m.
According to the criminal complaint, the victim reported that someone entered her vehicle and stole a Blackpink backpack, a used battery from the back seat, and hand tools from the trunk. She also told police that her home had been burglarized previously and that a spare house key had been stolen.
The victim provided police with surveillance footage showing a dark-skinned man wearing a black baseball cap, white T-shirt, and black pants removing items from her vehicle. Investigators later identified Ealey after a caller recognized him from the footage, which had been posted on Facebook. The caller also identified the vehicle Ealey used during the burglary.
Bryan Manabat was a liberal arts student of Northern Marianas College where he also studied criminal justice. He is the recipient of the NMI Humanities Award as an Outstanding Teacher (Non-Classroom) in 2013, and has worked for the CNMI Motheread/Fatheread Literacy Program as lead facilitator.
