HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — A man charged with aggravated murder stemming from the fatal shooting and robbery at Thai Thai Healthy Cuisine restaurant on Valentine’s Day served six years of an eight-year term in prison for prior robberies before being released on parole.
Domingo Mendiola currently is being held at the Department of Corrections on $500,000 cash bail after being charged with killing Sumittra Lairopi and stealing her car. Court documents quote witnesses as saying Mendiola attempted to rob Lairopi because of an “owed drug debt.”
Mendiola’s pretrial confinement, however, is not Mendiola’s first time at DOC, as he was confined between 2010 and 2014 for charges of assault, criminal mischief, family violence and theft of property.
In 2015 and 2016 though, Mendiola was arrested and charged in connection to three robberies that were drug-related.
According to court documents, Mendiola allegedly robbed Alice Mart at the Hotel Santa Fe and the Ben Franklin Craft store in Tamuning on Nov. 23, 2015.
Charging documents state officers with the Guam Police Department first responded to Alice Mart, where they met with an employee who said Mendiola, who was wearing a yellow long-sleeved shirt, entered the store about 11:20 a.m. and yelled, “Put the (expletive) money in the bag, or I will shoot you.”
The employee complied and gave Mendiola $287 before Mendiola demanded money from the employee’s purse. The employee complied again before Mendiola took three packs of cigarettes from the shelf and fled toward Shirley’s Restaurant, documents state.
Ben Franklin
Following the Alice Mart robbery, police learned Mendiola was picked up by another individual at Shirley’s, who dropped Mendiola off near Alupang Beach Towers.
Court documents state police responded to Ben Franklin after Alice Mart, where an employee of Ben Franklin said Mendiola initially asked the employee for the price of an item behind the counter.
“As (the employee’s) back was turned, Mendiola pulled out an object that looked like a black handgun and pointed it at (the employee) and yelled, ‘Give me all your cash,'” the magistrate’s complaint stated.
The employee noticed that the gun was plastic, which is when Mendiola fled.
Once interviewed by police, Mendiola said he did not plan to rob Ben Franklin and denied demanding money from the employee, but admitted to entering the store.
Court documents state Mendiola did plan to rob Alice Mart.
“Mendiola told police that he committed the robberies to support his addiction to the drug ‘ice,'” according to the magistrate’s complaint
Tanota Gardens
On Nov. 24, 2015, a day after the first two robberies, Mendiola was accused of robbing Tanota Gardens in Dededo.
According to the magistrate’s complaint, a woman said a male individual, identified as Mendiola, pointed a gun at her and took about $1,500 from rent receipts.
Mendiola was then discovered to have fled in a black Mazda SUV driven by a woman. When Mendiola was interviewed, he said the woman planned to rob the Tanota Gardens office, they both smoked ice, and they shopped for a black “replica type” handgun before deciding on a BB gun.
Mendiola in this case was charged with second-degree robbery as a second-degree felony and conspiracy to commit second-degree robbery as a second-degree felony.
Plea and parole
About 11 months after the three robberies, Mendiola pleaded guilty in the Superior Court of Guam to charges related to the robberies.
According to the plea agreement, Mendiola pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery as a second-degree felony and third-degree robbery as a third-degree felony. The terms of the plea agreement also had Mendiola serving eight years in total between the two charges, five years for second-degree robbery and three years for third-degree robbery.
After taking the plea, Mendiola served six of the eight years at DOC before being released on Dec. 9, 2022.
Mendiola was released after an appearance before the Guam Parole Board on Nov. 17, 2022.
As a result, the board granted Mendiola’s parole request after reviewing a risk assessment, an investigation report prepared by the Parole Services Division of DOC and testimony from Mendiola at the parole hearing.
The granted request included the parole board going through a checklist of conditions that would allow parole in accordance with Guam law.
Some of the conditions included determining whether release was “compatible with public safety and security” and if there was “a substantial likelihood that he will abide by law and conform to the conditions of parole.”
“The prisoner’s attitude toward law and authority is compatible with his release,” one condition stated.
Other conditions involved determining whether Mendiola had an acceptable parole plan, had an acceptable home environment and had undergone treatment programs.
The decision to grant Mendiola’s parole was based on the conditions that, upon his release date, Mendiola was to attend and complete the Resident Substance Abuse Treatment Aftercare conducted by Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center, along with completing 90 Narcotics Anonymous meetings in 90 days.
Barnett
In light of the Thai Thai shooting and the fatal shooting and robbery of a Korean Tourist in Tumon on Jan. 4, Sen. Chris Barnett, the public safety chair of the 37th Guam Legislature, told The Guam Daily Post the methamphetamine epidemic is setting defendants such as Mendiola “up for failure.”
“If we are to release people into the community, whether it’s through parole or they completed their sentences, if we’re not doing our part as a government to make sure that we’re addressing what seems like a never-ending supply of crystal methamphetamine out here in our streets, then we’re really just setting these people up for failure,” Barnett said, discussing his recently introduced bill which would create stiffer penalties for drug dealers.
While Barnett acknowledged there was pushback against potentially creating lengthier sentences because to some people it is not the right way to address the problem, he told the Post treating the meth problem as a public health issue has not resolved it so far.
“We’re putting all of our eggs into treatment and rehab, and we’re not doing the enforcement and the interdiction at a level that is really going to do some damage to these kingpins,” Barnett said.
Domingo Mendiola
