Murder Fugitive Charged with Illegal Entry

fugitive

The man believed to be a fugitive on the run for murdering his wife in Tonga was in District Court this morning.

Dean J Fletcher is charged with failure to produce documents and accused of unlawfully entering and landing at the port of Pago Pago without any clearance.

According to court documents, a woman had called police to say that Dean Jay is possibly wanted for murder in the Kingdom of Tonga where he had escaped using a sailboat later identified as the Sea Oak.

The woman was brought in for an interview and she told police that she had woken up because of noises that sounded like a boat being anchored right next to hers..

She said she saw what appeared to be a man going to shore with two gasoline cans but when she carefully looked at the male figure close to the lights she immediately recognized that man as “Fletcher.”sea oak

The informant said she knew the defendant 6 years ago and that was how she was able to easily recognize Fletcher.

She stressed the fact that she had read in the news that Fletcher is wanted by the Kingdom of Tonga for murder and that he escaped custody.

Court filings say that Fletcher sailed out of the harbor at some point.

The Marine Patrol base was contacted to locate Fletcher’s yacht and Mad Dog III crew was able to locate the Sea Oak off Fagaitua beach.

They found on board a man matching the description that the informant gave of Fletcher.

The yacht, Sea Oak, with Fletcher on board was escorted back into Pago Pago Harbor.

Because the defendant and his yacht entered the territory without proper documents nor did he have a yellow flag or any proof of clearance from the last port, he was detained and transported to Tafuna Correctional Facility.

While in court this morning the defendant tried talking straight to the District Court Judge Fiti Sunia and was stopped by the judge.

Sunia told him, “You have a lawyer and let him do his job.”

The District Court judge denied bail for the defendant saying, “because this man is involved in a murder case the court has power to deny bail.”

Fletcher’s pretrial is set for October 26th.

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