VENUSTO Mangarero, also known as “Jesus Malus,” is accused of choking his wife in the early morning of Dec. 3, 2022.
Mangarero, 66, was arrested and charged with assault and battery, strangulation, and disturbing the peace.
According to the complaint against Mangarero, the Department of Public Safety at 3:55 a.m. received a call from an individual regarding a woman who was yelling for help in a white Toyota Tacoma behind the Saipan airport.
DPS then sent an advisory to all police units to be on the lookout for the vehicle.
At 4:03 a.m., a police unit found the vehicle in a parking lot of a supermarket in Chalan Piao.
A police officer saw Mangarero in the driver side without a shirt and a woman in the front passenger seat who appeared to be emotionally distressed and was avoiding eye contact.
The officer asked Mangarero if they were okay. Mangarero replied, “Yes, officer.” He then got out of the vehicle and entered the supermarket.
When the police officer asked the female passenger if she was okay, she said in a shaky voice, “He bring me to the woods and choke me.”
In a statement to the police after he was arrested, Mangarero said he and his wife went to Obyan Beach to look for bananas. He said she asked him why he took her there. She then tried to get out of their vehicle, he added.
He said he told his wife not to get out of the truck because it was very dark. She was not listening, he added, so he “roughly pushed his wife feet into the [vehicle], grabbed her neck with both hands, pushed her into the [vehicle] and told her to stop it.”
He said they then went to the supermarket to buy soap and cigarettes.
The woman was brought to the hospital where a police officer observed that she was having difficulty putting pressure on her right foot. The officer also observed a rash on her neck, and blood underneath her right thumb. She said that Mangarero hurt her feet with the vehicle door and choked her with both his hands, so she scratched his face.
She told another officer that Mangarero accused her of having an affair and hiding his phone from him. She said she almost blacked out when Mangarero choked her.
Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho imposed a $10,000 cash bail on Mangarero and remanded him to the custody of the Department of Corrections after a bail hearing on Monday.
Mangarero was ordered to return to court for a preliminary hearing on Dec. 14 at 10 a.m. and for an arraignment on Dec. 19 at 9 a.m.
Assistant Public Defender Emily Thomsen represented Mangarero while Assistant Attorney General Frances Demapan appeared for the government.
Venusto Mangarero
