For drug trafficking Federal jury convicts businessman

Members of the federal grand jury sided yesterday with the prosecution, convicting local businessman Leo S. Pangelinan on all four counts of trafficking metamphetamine or ice during the periods covering June to October 2000.

Screaming evidence ranging from physical to testimonial accounts presented by Asst. US Attorney John J. Rice on behalf of the government led to the guilty verdict rendered by the 12-member jury during the trial’s conclusion yesterday.

District Judge Alex R. Munson has set Mr. Pangelinan’s sentencing on June 19, 2001 at 9am.

The pieces of evidence confirmed that the defendant distributed ice to “customers” whose names were apparently listed under a pocket-size address book.

The defendant’s buyers, as evidence showed, were customers hailing from both Saipan and Tinian.

The prosecution sealed its arguments before the jury by carefully detailing each and every piece of evidence that were brought before the court during the course of the four-day trial.

Mr. Rice backtracked on testimonies made by Drug Enforcement Administration agents and two key witnesses that strengthened the evidence against the defendant.

The US lawyer highlighted on the crucial aspects behind Mr. Pangelinan’s illegal business activities, describing in detail how ice was packaged inside his house in Capitol Hill and the paraphernalia used in the process.

Attention was also directed at the so-called ledgers, address book, and calendar the business operator with his partner used as aid in his drug deals.

The documents, as showed in court, contained calculations of numbers without direct reference as to what was being computed.

The prosecution further refreshed jurors of the testimonies delivered by the hired DEA informant, Vicente Aldan Sablan, and the defendant’s business partner and former girlfriend Sonia Belyeu.

Mr. Sablan, a professed former drug user, told the court he bought several hundred dollars worth of ice from Mr. Pangelinan last year, as directed by the DEA Task Force.

A taped conversation between the defendant and the witness when they were conducting the business transaction was presented before the court.

Ms. Belyeu, a former live-in partner of the defendant, also corroborated statements made by the first witnesses.

In her testimony, she confirmed of Mr. Pangelinan’s participation in several hand-to-hand sale of crystal metamphetamine or ice at his house in Capitol Hill, and at times in several places such as the Green Hill Hotel and the Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino.

The key witness told the court she even took part in the packaging of the controlled substances on several occasions.

Ms. Belyeu, the defendant’s former live-in partner, added that she was with Mr. Pangelinan at the time he was arrested last October of 2000.

The defense panel, however, countered the prosecution’s arguments with the contention that the handling of evidence was improperly administered.

Lawyer Joey Arriola challenged the chain of custody requirements executed by authorities, citing doubts that some pieces of evidence may have been tampered prior to its presentation to the court.

He also countered that the DEA agents failed to follow the proper procedure in going about the controlled buy operations staged to trap the defendant.

Authorities failed to comply with chain of custody requirements by subjecting informant Mr. Sablan to a pat down search instead of a strip search.

The defense lawyer also questioned the prosecution’s selection of witnesses, qualifying their testimonies as self-serving, especially with that of Ms. Belyeu’s.

The lady witness agreed to cooperate with the government on the case with hopes that she will be handed a lesser sentence as an accomplice to the similar crime, according to Mr. Arriola.

Meanwhile, Mr. Pangelinan has been convicted on four-count charges of conspiracy to posses with intent to distribute ice, distribution of ice, and possession of ice with intent to distribute.