Saint George — According to police, a person who tracked his wallet to the stolen car the suspect was sitting in led to the capture of a Salt Lake County parolee with a violent criminal past in Washington City.
Tonga Angilau, a 27-year-old suspect, was later arrested after being charged with nearly 30 offences and having his bail denied by the Bureau of Prisons. Angilau resides in Kearns, a Salt Lake City neighbourhood. Several hours before to the arrest, just before 12:30 p.m. on Monday, officers were called to a report of a vehicle being taken from a parking lot in Washington City.
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When police arrived, they discovered that a suspect had been seen inspecting a number of cars in a parking lot, ostensibly to see if they were open. The target vehicle, a white passenger car, was visible in security footage that the reporting party got and that was given to the police. A short while afterwards, the car was visible exiting the parking lot.
Officers discovered another vehicle that had been broken into nearby to the south of where the car had been parked before it was stolen. Authorities took the information and the suspect’s description, but after a thorough search of the area they were unable to find either the guy or the passenger automobile.
After an hour, police were called to the Telegraph Street Walmart for an allegation of a theft. When they arrived, they discovered that a wallet had been taken, and the owner had been able to locate it in the Washington City Walmart parking lot. His wallet was in a brown Toyota SUV with California licence plates when he got to the parking lot.
The man reportedly observed the suspect inside the SUV change his clothes before the suspect exited the vehicle and entered the store. The suspect carried out two transactions worth more than $400 while inside. The SUV was reported as stolen out of St. George on an unrelated case, the officers discovered after running the licence plates via emergency dispatch.
Police were waiting for the suspect to leave the store when they set up shop in the Walmart parking lot on Telegraph. When they spotted the guy getting into an SUV, they immediately stopped traffic at gunpoint and took him into custody. Officers tracked the wallet to the Walmart parking lot and made the arrest after finding a brown leather wallet that matched the one taken from the reporting party and included three credit cards that belonged to the individual who phoned police.
When questioned, Angilau initially gave a false name and birthdate, but later he was conclusively identified by an agent from Adult Probation and Parole. Officers discovered a loaded semiautomatic handgun and a sawed-off shotgun while searching the car. A black pouch with a plastic bag holding a sizable amount of suspected methamphetamine and other paraphernalia was also found.
The owner of the wallet informed cops he never handed the man the cards and didn’t even know who the man was, contradicting the Angilau’s claim that he was given the bank cards to buy a phone while speaking with police, according to the report. The suspect claimed that, rather than him, the Walmart employee swiped the credit cards during the transaction. He further claimed that the vehicle’s owner had handed it to him.
Despite the police car’s air conditioner being on at the time, officers saw that Angilau looked to be bouncing and squirming in his seat and was heavily perspiring. His fast talking and face twitching while speaking to cops were other things that were observed. Authorities assumed he was under the influence of a stimulant as a result of this.
The suspect told police he was done talking, and after being taken into custody and brought to Purgatory Correctional Facility, where correctional staff found 11 more transaction cards hidden in the suspect’s underwear, the suspect was later released.
The suspect was arrested and charged with roughly 30 offences, five of which were second-degree felonies. These offences included two counts of possessing a dangerous weapon by a restricted person and one count each of theft and possession of a stolen vehicle. After the officer looking into the theft of the white passenger automobile was informed of the suspect’s arrest, one of the theft charges was filed.
Along with five misdemeanour charges for theft, lying to a peace officer, two counts of shoplifting, and possession of marijuana and paraphernalia, Angilau is also charged with 17 third-degree felonies, including 13 counts of illegally obtaining a financial card, three counts of illegally using a card, and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.
Officers discovered a no-bail warrant issued by the Board of Pardons as well as a warrant recorded in the federal crime database while doing a background investigation on the suspect. The Bureau of Prisons warrant was issued after the suspect’s release on two 2014 robbery cases, and the no-bail warrant was issued on a 2021 felony guns case that is currently going to trial.
In the first incident, Angilau was found guilty of punching a guy for his cell phone and received a prison sentence. In the second incident, the suspect assaulted a store employee while committing a theft. The suspect received three sentences of one to fifteen years in Utah State Prison, two of which were mandated to run concurrently.
He was brought to the jail in March 2015 to start serving those sentences. One year later, he was granted parole and discharged. This report may not include all of the conclusions because it is based on statements from court documents, police, or other responders. A person who has been accused or arrested is deemed innocent unless proven guilty in court or in accordance with another decision made by a trier of fact.
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