Moses Pangelinan Cabrera, 78, is escorted by Corrections officers and a CNMI Marshal after a bail hearing at the Guma’ Hustisia on Monday morning.
MOSES Pangelinan Cabrera, 78, admitted killing his brother, Pedro Pangelinan Cabrera, 71, by using a hammer to hit the victim’s head and later dumping the body at the southern side of the Fishing Base in Garapan, according to court documents.
Moses Cabrera, in a freely given statement to Lt. Catherine Pangelinan, stated that he and his brother Pedro had a heated disagreement about their family land, which led to a physical altercation. Moses said his brother Pedro threatened to stab him under a tree at their family compound.
On Monday morning, Moses, who was in the custody of the Department of Corrections, appeared at a bail hearing before Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho.
Moses was represented by Chief Public Defender Douglas Hartig, while Chief Prosecutor Chester Hinds appeared for the government.
Judge Camacho maintained the $250,000 cash bail imposed on Moses’s release and remanded him to the custody of Corrections. He was ordered to return to court for a preliminary hearing on Aug. 9 at 10 a.m., and for an arraignment on Aug. 19 at 9 a.m.
Moses was charged with second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and battery, and assault with a dangerous weapon.
According to the complaint against the defendant, on Aug. 1, at around 5:07 p.m., Police Officer Freddie Guerrero responded to a reported unconscious male at the Garapan Fishing Base.
At the scene, Guerrero saw a man on the ground with a dragon tattoo on his stomach and multiple tattoos on his arm. Guerrero saw the man’s head was tilted backward and his face from his forehead to his nose was cracked opened. The officer also saw that the victim’s left eye had sunk into his head. Guerrero likewise observed a one-inch cut on the man’s left side chin area. The officer said he did not smell any strong odor coming from the body.
Dr. Rodney Klassen of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation determined the victim’s cause of death to be severe trauma to the head. Other injuries noted included skull fragments and the left eye socket loose in the skull.
A witness told Detective Sylvan Rangamar and Police Officer Edwin Basto that Moses Cabrera was the only person who would drive the victim if he needed to go anywhere and that Moses owned a black Nissan Sentra. The witness said the victim often wore a black beanie.
The detective later saw a black Nissan Sentra parked outside Moses’s residence.
Initial interview
During the initial interview with Moses, he told the investigators that he had been drinking with his brothers, Pedro and Fritz, at his residence Thursday afternoon. Moses said he was not sure of the exact time, but he left them to go fishing in the area from the Carolinian Utt to the Garapan Fishing Base.
Moses showed the investigator the location where he and his siblings were drinking, which was at the eastern part of the family compound.
Rangamar observed beer cans beside the parked Nissan Sentra and a pair of slippers behind the car. Asked about the slippers, Moses said that they belonged to his brother, Pedro.
Rangamar said he wanted to see Moses’s talaya (throw fishing net) that he used for fishing. Moses then directed him to a FEMA tent.
Rangamar said he touched the talaya, and it was dry. He then asked Moses if he had caught any fish, to which Moses responded yes, but he ate everything.
At around 9:47 p.m., investigators from the DPS-Criminal Investigation Bureau collected the beer cans as evidence and noticed drops of dark liquid that appeared to be blood on the rear bumper of the Nissan Sentra owned by Moses.
Detective Briton Cruz also found the victim’s black beanie on a closed box on a picnic table outside the outdoor kitchen. Cruz likewise discovered what appeared to be blood on a rubber mat with holes just in front of the table and a hammer with what appeared to be blood just next to the FEMA tent.
Crime Scene Technician Giancarlo Evangelista, for his part, found what appeared to be brain matter and blood splatter on the roofing tin wall and the FEMA tent.
On Friday, Aug. 2, Cruz reviewed surveillance footage from Aug 1, at approximately 2:50 p.m., which showed Moses’s Nissan Sentra heading south on Beach Road then turning into the southern entrance of the Garapan Fishing Base and heading toward the pier.
At about 3:28 p.m., an individual was seen walking away from the Nissan Sentra and sitting at the nearest pavilion. The same individual was seen walking back to the Nissan Sentra, which then left the area.
Condolences
Lt. Pangelinan, who was serving a Rule 5 affidavit complaint to a detainee at Corrections, encountered Moses in his booking cell.
Pangelinan expressed her condolences to Moses and his family. Moses responded in Chamorro, saying, “Pedro was going to stab me under the tree.”
Pangelinan told Moses that she could not interview him without reading his constitutional rights. But Moses repeated multiple times that his brother Pedro was trying to stab him.
Later, Moses confessed that he killed his brother after a heated disagreement about their family land.
