Shun Jin Mo pleaded guilty during a change of plea hearing on June 4.
The defendant was represented by Assistant Public Defender Malik Edwards while Assistant Attorney General Melissa Simms appeared on behalf of the government.
Associate Judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted the plea and sentenced Shun Jin Mo to six months of imprisonment, but all suspended except for the first nine days with credit for nine days for time already served.
Shun Jin Mo was also placed on unsupervised probation for six months and was ordered to pay a$25 court assessment fee.
The judge said failure to comply with these conditions will constitute a violation of the terms of the suspended sentence and will subject the defendant to a revocation proceedings.
Shun Jin Mo’s review hearing was set for July 30 at 9 am.
Manglona said Shun Jin Mo is the second defendant to plead guilty to “a rarely committed offense,” which is taking wildlife in a sanctuary area.
According to the judge, it is a crime that does not involve the infliction of any bodily injury to another person or the damage of property of another person, “but it is nevertheless a crime because it is a conduct that the Commonwealth Legislature has deemed worthy of restricting for the benefit of the public interest in conserving and protecting the natural resources.”
The Legislature’s purpose of creating a sanctuary to be used to gradually and naturally repopulate the depopulated areas of CNMI’s lagoon must be enforced in order to protect the islands’ limited and precious resources, Manglona said.
She added that this enforcement was promptly made when the defendants were arrested at the scene and Shun Jin Mo and Guo Zhen Hua both acknowledged the wrongfulness of their conduct through their guilty pleas.
Guo Zhen Hua also signed a plea agreement and entered a guilty plea.
The two defendants were charged for taking fish and lobster in the Grotto sanctuary in Marpi on March 3, 2008.
