FOLLOWING a bench trial on June 8, 2023, Superior Court Associate Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio found Edward Blas guilty of assault and disturbing the peace while on parole.
The judge said she found that the evidence presented proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Blas, 31, was found guilty of two counts of assault, and two counts of disturbing the peace.
For the two counts of assault, Judge Kim-Tenorio sentenced Blas to six months for each count, to run concurrently.
As for the two counts of disturbing the peace, Blas was sentenced to six months for each count, to run concurrently.
The sentences for assault and disturbing the peace will run consecutively, the judge said in her order.
Blas will serve one year, all suspended, with credit for time served of 220 days. He will also be placed on supervised probation for one year.
At the bench trial, Blas was represented by Assistant Public Defender Molly Denert, while Assistant Attorney General Heather Barcinas appeared for the government.
Blas, whose parole application was granted in July 2022, was arrested and charged with assaulting his girlfriend on Nov. 1, 2022.
According to the complaint against Blas, he punched his girlfriend and threatened to kill two people with a kitchen knife while intoxicated with alcohol.
The girlfriend told police that Blas was mad because he could not find his slippers and stabbed a plastic table in anger.
Before he was paroled, Blas served a 24-year prison sentence after he pled guilty to murder in the first degree committed during the perpetration of burglary and/or robbery.
He became eligible for parole after serving one-third of his sentence.
Blas, who was 16 at that time of the incident, was charged as an adult with two other teenagers in 2009.
According to the prosecution, the three beat to death a security guard, Efren Ballesteros, 45, with a PVC pipe, an iron rebar and a 2×2 wood on Nov. 17, 2008, at Marianas High School.
Police said the three defendants planned to steal laptops from MHS.
