HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — A man pleaded not guilty to charges related to a fatal stabbing in Mangilao last month.
Isaac Gurtamag appeared in the Superior Court of Guam to answer to the charge of murder as a first-degree felony, with a special allegation of using a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony.
On behalf of Gurtamag, attorney Renita Taimanao-Munoz, from the Public Defender Service Corp., pleaded not guilty, requested a jury trial of 12 and waived Gurtamag’s right to a speedy trial.
Magistrate Judge Benjamin Sison stated Gurtamag’s next hearing would be before Judge Vernon Perez.
Gurtamag appeared before Sison via Zoom from the Department of Corrections, where he is held on $100,000 cash bail. A Yapese interpreter was present to translate the proceedings for Gurtamag.
Stabbing
Gurtamag’s charges stem from an investigation launched by the Guam Police Department Dec. 23, 2023, when officers responded to an expired person call at a Mangilao residence.
According to court documents, police arrived to find a deceased man with a stab wound. The man was later identified as Mike Tithin. The body was cold, and rigor mortis had set in, officers reported.
During the investigation, GPD met a witness who said Gurtamag was the last person to be with Tithin. Gurtamag was later located and interviewed, where he said he was the last one with Tithin at the Mangilao residence when Tithin became angry at Gurtamag. Gurtamag, in response, told Tithin to sleep it off, charging documents state.
The next day, when Gurtamag woke up, Tithin was gone, but a woman informed police that Gurtamag said he and Tithin were in an argument when “Tithin threatened to shoot” Gurtamag, who allegedly, in response, “retrieved a knife to defend against Tithin’s threats,” the complaint stated.
The woman further stated she saw Gurtamag “carrying a long object, walking immediately after Tithin.”
“(The woman) also informed police that (the) defendant got into a vehicle and pursued Tithin. (The woman) indicated to police that (the) defendant did not know if he stabbed Tithin,” the complaint stated.
Officers later learned Tithin and Gurtamag were cousins and that Tithin had damaged Gurtamag’s car in the past.
Isaac Gurtamag
