Semi Sago was convicted at trial for two counts of intent to distribute methamphetamine and for possession of methamphetamine.
On April 11, after two hours of deliberation, a jury returned with a unanimous verdict of guilty against Sago, ending a four day trial.
The evidence presented at trial showed that in the early morning hours of September 27, 2022, the Vice and Narcotics Special Unit served a search warrant for illegal drugs and firearms on Sago’s residence in Aua.
Officers found the defendant sleeping in his bedroom. When he was awakened, he reached for an object near the window and for the safety of the officers, he was handcuffed and detained.
A certified K-9 Officer and his K-9 searched Semi Sago’s bedroom and found a box that contained $860 cash, and 7 cut up straws filled with a crystalline substance. The search also found a glass pipe, small plastic bags and notebooks.
A field test of the crystalline substances found during the search, returned positive results for methamphetamine.
A forensic chemist from the Drug Enforcement Administration lab that conducted a chemical analysis of the cut up straws of crystalline substances seized in the drug search, travelled to American Samoa to testify at trial.
The case was prosecuted by Deputy Attorney General Roy J.D. Hall, Jr.
The Attorney General’s Office said, “American Samoa, like many other communities in the United States and Pacific Islands are experiencing the same problem of methamphetamine or ICE being sold and distributed to adults, and even young people. The lives of these people are ruined, their futures are being denied, opportunities are lost, families are destroyed and in too many cases, the users are dying from the addiction to methamphetamine or ICE.”
The maximum penalty for each of the two counts in which Semi Sago was convicted is twenty years in prison and $20,000.
