Supervised release ends for man in hostage taking case

The federal court has discharged from supervised release Sheldon Yano, who was one of seven prisoners who staged a 14-hour hostage drama at the Department of Corrections in Susupe in 1999.

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona on Friday terminated the proceedings in Yano’s case after the U.S. Probation Office told the court that Yano has completed his term of supervised release.

U.S. probation officer Gregory F. Arriola disclosed that Yano’s period of supervision expired on June 15, 2014.

In August 1999, then-federal court chief judge Alex Munson slapped Yano with a 180-month prison sentence and five years of supervised release for conspiracy to take hostages.

Yano was one of four men convicted in the kidnapping and rape of two Chinese women in Marpi in 1998. The Superior Court slapped him with a 10-year prison term for kidnapping.

In August 1999, then-acting governor Jesus R. Sablan commuted Yano’s sentence to time served to allow him to serve the prison sentence imposed by Munson in the hostage taking case.