{"id":383002,"date":"2023-01-09T06:06:32","date_gmt":"2023-01-08T20:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=383002"},"modified":"2023-01-09T06:06:32","modified_gmt":"2023-01-08T20:06:32","slug":"suspect-in-bergeron-murder-found-guilty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/suspect-in-bergeron-murder-found-guilty\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect in Bergeron murder found guilty"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Rachelle Bergeron<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the two defendants in the killing of Yap\u2019s former acting attorney general, Rachelle Bergeron, was found guilty of murder charges.<\/p>\n

Yap State Court Associate Justice Jonathan M. Tun issued the verdict Thursday, convicting Anthony Tun Teteeth who was implicated in the Oct. 14, 2019, incident that shocked the community and made international headlines.<\/p>\n

Bergeron received three fatal shots after returning home from jogging along with her dog, which also died in the shooting.<\/p>\n

“As gruesome as it may seem, the court is left with the only conclusion possible: that defendant did intentionally cause the death of Rachelle Bergeron,” the court said, citing the fatal gunshots sustained by the American lawyer, as well as the damage to the government house and the victim’s vehicle.<\/p>\n

In response to the defense attorney’s argument that Tun’s intention was just “scare the victim,” the court pointed out that “there is a whole wide range of acts that defendant could have taken to effect the scaring of the victim without using a shotgun, firing three times, while aiming at the victim.”<\/p>\n

Tun was charged on Nov. 20, 2019 along with Francis Choay Buchun, who was named co-conspirator.<\/p>\n

The case took more than three years to conclude due to the FSM\u2019s closed border during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Tun was slapped with 19 charges including conspiracy to commit murder, murder, manslaughter, negligent homicide, and assault with a dangerous weapon, among others.<\/p>\n

He was acquitted of charges of threats, criminal coercion, and threats to influence official matters.<\/p>\n

The judge has yet to set a date for sentencing, but it is usually two to three weeks after the verdict is read, according to court procedures.<\/p>\n

Under the Yap State Code, murder is punishable by 10 years to life imprisonment, or a maximum fine of $10,000\u2014or both.<\/p>\n

Buchun was charged with 19 identical counts. Closing statements in his trial were made in court last week.<\/p>\n

Yap State\u2019s Chief Justice Cyprian Manmaw is expected to hand down a verdict on Buchun on Jan. 13.<\/p>\n

The prosecution, led by the government\u2019s attorney, Jeffrey S. Tilfas, maintained that the two defendants \u201cacted in concert\u201d to plan and execute \u201cthe violent act.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FSM Supreme Court will hear the defendants\u2019 cases for two violations of ammunition and weapons acquisition and\/or possession in February.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: Originally published in Pacific Island Times at https:\/\/www.pacificislandtimes.com\/post\/defendant-in-bergeron-murder-case-found-guilty<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the two defendants in the killing of Yap\u2019s former acting attorney general, Rachelle…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":383004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[16023],"class_list":["post-383002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-pacific-island-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}