HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — A man who allegedly was found with two meth pipes in his pants pocket told officers with the Guam Police Department, “This is not my pants.”
On Sunday afternoon, police responded to reports of a stolen vehicle at an Inalåhan store. When officers found the car, Byron Torres Naputi, 38, and another man were in it, according to a magistrate’s complaint filed Monday in the Superior Court of Guam.
Naputi was arrested on suspicion of theft of the vehicle and when officers patted down Naputi, they located in defendant Naputi’s pants pockets two shattered glass pipes wrapped in white napkin, which both contained suspected methamphetamine, the complaint stated.
A field test later yielded a presumptive positive for methamphetamine.
In response to the pipes being discovered, Naputi allegedly said, “This is not my pants,” according to the complaint.
Naputi was charged with possession of a Schedule II controlled substance as a third-degree felony, with a special allegation of commission of a felony while on felony release.
According to the complaint, Naputi was on pretrial release in a 2022 felony case for charges of assault on a peace officer and terrorizing.
Vehicle theft
The other man found in the reportedly stolen vehicle was Joel Layson Rama, 66, who was charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle as a misdemeanor.
Rama’s magistrate’s complaint was filed separately from Naputi’s and stated the vehicle, a Ford Econoline E350 van, was stolen from a worksite in Sånta Rita-Sumai and was last seen Saturday morning.
When police located the van, Rama was in the driver’s seat and Naputi was in the passenger seat. According to the complaint, Rama told an officer earlier that morning at about 8 or 9 a.m. a man named “Mario” gave Rama the van to use due to a gambling debt.
Afterward, Rama picked up Naputi, the complaint added.
Byron Naputi
