JERRY Babauta Basa Jr., a sales agent of a private company, has admitted collecting $8,582 in payment from a Kagman store and using most of the money to play poker and buy methamphetamine.
Basa, 31, was charged with theft and appeared before Superior Court Associate Judge Teresa Kim-Tenorio for a bail hearing Monday morning.
The judge imposed a $1,000 cash bail on the defendant who was remanded to the custody of the Department of Corrections after the hearing.
He was ordered to return to court on March 9 at 10 a.m. for a preliminary hearing, and on March 14 at 9 a.m. for an arraignment.
The court appointed Assistant Public Defender Vena Seelam to represent Basa while Chief Prosecutor Chester Hinds appeared for the government.
According to the complaint against Basa, a private company called the police department on Feb. 4 to report a theft.
The company manager told police that their salesperson picked up payment in the amount of more than $8,000 from a Kagman store on Feb. 3, 2022 and had not turned it over to their accountant.
A co-worker told police that he was with Basa when they were collecting the payment, and that Basa insisted on receiving the money.
The co-worker said he did not suspect anything as Basa had been on the job for a much longer period of time than the co-worker.
Basa told police that on Feb. 3 he received $8,852 in payment from a Kagman store and at around 4 p.m. he played video poker at a poker establishment in Garapan.
Inside, Basa said he met a random guy from whom he bought methamphetamine. He said he went into the restroom and smoked meth then went back to playing poker until the next morning.
According to Basa, when he realized that he had lost so much money, he started to panic so he went to another poker establishment in Garapan.
Later he sent a message to his boss, saying that he was unable to come to work because he was not feeling well, but it was a lie because he didn’t have the money to turn in.
He said he smoked more meth then played poker again while receiving multiple messages from his co-workers, families, and boss to turn in the money.
Basa stated that he called his manager and informed him that there was not much left of the money.
He said he went to the office and turned in the company car and keys along with the remaining money, the amount of which was not mentioned in court documents.
