A former drug dependent has been granted another chance to start life anew.<\/p>\n
In what appears to be a first in the US District Court’s history, a defendant who had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to posses with intent to distribute crystal metamphetamine or ice was sentenced to three years of supervised release.<\/p>\n
Aside from the 58-day jail term she has served inside a Guam prison, ex-drug user Sonia Castro Belyeu was relieved from further doing time behind bars.<\/p>\n
The federal court ordered her release from custody yesterday. Starting a clean slate, she is expected to report today for her first day of work in an insurance company.<\/p>\n
As a key instrument in a case that led to the conviction of drug-trafficker Leo S. Pangelinan, a lighter sentence was imposed on Ms. Belyeu, as recommended by the US government.<\/p>\n
Though admitting the defendant violated laws through her previous drug use, Asst. US Attorney John Rice also noted that the defendant at least faced up to what she had done.<\/p>\n
“She told the whole truth. She spoke of what she did wrong,” said Mr. Rice during the defendant’s sentencing yesterday.<\/p>\n
District Judge Alex R. Munson ruled for the prosecution’s recommendations, citing that the defendant’s participation in the drug trial was of substantial assistance to the government’s case.<\/p>\n
The judge impressed upon Ms. Belyeu that she was the first defendant to receive a supervised release sentence, considering the degree and seriousness of the crime she has committed.<\/p>\n
Mr. Munson further warned that should the defendant be caught in a similar fix in the future, the federal court would not hesitate to send her to prison.<\/p>\n
“The next time someone offers you ice, just say “No”,” said the judge, quoting words from former first lady Nancy Reagan.<\/p>\n
As part of her sentence, Ms. Belyeu has been ordered to strictly follow a series of conditions, starting with adherence to all federal, state, and local laws.<\/p>\n
She has also been mandated to obey all conditions under her supervised release and refrain from possessing any firearms of dangerous weapon.<\/p>\n
The defendant is also prohibited from using any controlled substances or from consuming alcohol.<\/p>\n
Further, she is supposed to submit to 200 hours of community service, obtain and maintain a gainful employment, as well as participate in a drug abuse prevention program.<\/p>\n
Ms. Belyeu, a former live-in partner of Mr. Pangelinan, acted as a cooperating witness in the latter’s federal jury trial last month.<\/p>\n
While testifying against the defendant, the witness also declared her involvement in the drug operation with her former boyfriend.<\/p>\n
To lessen the consequences of her alleged part in the operation, Ms. Belyeu struck a deal with the government.<\/p>\n
The former Attorney General’s Office employee earlier admitted she had no desire to spend a single day behind bars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A former drug dependent has been granted another chance to start life anew. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57394","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}