Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja imposed a $10,000 cash bail on Mohammad Jahangir Miah who appeared in the custody of the Department of Corrections for his initial appearance yesterday afternoon.
Attorney Edward Arriola is representing Miah while Assistant Attorney General Peter Prestley is prosecuting the case.
Miah is being held on the charge of receiving stolen property, theft of vehicle, and tampering with vehicle.
In imposing the $10,000 cash bail, Naraja noted the prior conviction of Miah for theft by deception, and a similar pending case due for bench trial this October.
Naraja remanded Miah to the custody of Corrections after the hearing.
In his affidavit, Police Officer Norris Kwon said on May 3, 2010, at about 11:02 a.m., DPS received a stolen vehicle incident at a residence on Monsignor Guerrero Road.
Hong Wang owned the missing vehicle. He was arrested Tuesday on “ice” charges and is under the custody of Corrections.
Kwon said the suspect behind the disappearance of Wang’s vehicle was “a Chamorro male, wearing a white t-shirt, white and black pants, short hair, and kind of fat.”
On May 8, 2010, at about 1:29 a.m., DPS received another stolen vehicle incident that happened in front of Harmony Karaoke in western Garapan.
On May 12, 2010, Kwon said Wang approached Detective J. Olopai and requested for assistance, since Wang already knew the location of his stolen vehicle in Chinatown area, in a make-shift tin garage outside a barracks located northeast of Gold’s Gym.
Marlon De Leon told police he was a mechanic for Miah who gave him the white four-door sedan to work on.
Wang said it was his vehicle.
Having knowledge of Miah and his auto-shop in As Lito, Kwon said Olopai went to Miah’s shop, together with Wang, leaving the vehicle in question with De Leon.
When interviewed by Olopai, Miah said he owned the white four-door sedan parked at De Leon’s house, Kwon said.
After getting consent from Miah to verify the vehicle’s serial number, Olopai returned to De Leon’s place, but the vehicle was no longer there.
De Leon told Olopai that Miah called him and instructed him, De Leon, to remove the vehicle from the area.
De Leon said he refused to do so, but a man, a Bangladeshi like Miah, took the vehicle minutes before Olopai arrived.
On July 20, 2010, Kwon made a follow-up field interview with De Leon who admitted the he was the one who painted the white four-door sedan upon the instructions of his former employer, Miah.
De Leon further told Kwon that Miah instructed him to paint the vehicle in question within two days “because [Miah] brought [the vehicle] from a stealer.”
De Leon showed Kwon a video footage from his mobile phone showing that the original color of the white four-door sedan was blue, with license plate ADW 812 that matched the vehicle reported missing on May 8.
De Leon said police should search Miah’s compound in As Lito where De Leon saw Miah replaced the license plate ADW 812 with ADZ 441.
“De Leon further stated that Miah would always say that [Miah] was not scared of police because he got plenty of connections,” Kwon stated in his affidavit.
When asked by Kwon why he was no longer working for Miah, De Leon said “Miah is doing no-good things.”
