SUPERIOR Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho denied the request of Shaun Duenas Reyes who wanted to start serving his sentence on Jan. 20, 2022.
Reyes, 30, and co-defendant Dino Ayuyu Mettao were arrested last year by police after they tried to sell stolen excavator batteries to their owner.
Reyes pled guilty to theft and admitted violating the terms of his probation in a previous case.
On Jan. 19, 2022, Judge Camacho accepted Reyes’ guilty plea and sentenced him to serve one year imprisonment, all suspended except 120 days, to be served day for day without the possibility of parole or early release, and/or a similar program.
Reyes was given credit for the 24 days he had already served, but he will be placed on three-year probation after serving his jail sentence.
Judge Camacho also ordered him to pay a fine of $100, a court cost of $25, and a probation fee of $120 per year. Reyes must also perform 80 hours of community work service.
The judge ordered CNMI Marshals to remand Reyes to the Department of Corrections after the hearing so the defendant could serve his sentence immediately.
But at the hearing, Reyes asked the court to allow him to report to the Department of Corrections on the following day, Jan. 20.
Judge Camacho denied his request.
“The Department of Corrections is not a hotel that a defendant gets to choose when to check in and check out,” the judge said.
“A defendant has the constitutional right to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty in a court of law. Defendant Reyes just entered a plea of guilty and no longer has the constitutional protection of being presumed innocent,” the judge added.
Reyes’ co-defendant, Mettao, has also pled guilty to theft Variety, learned.
According to the Department of Public Safety, on Oct. 21, 2021, at about 9:04 a.m., police received a call regarding a theft incident. The items stolen were four heavy equipment batteries for excavators.
Police said Reyes and Mettao had tried to sell the batteries to United Equipment Rentals, which owned them.
