FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 6, 2010
CONTACT:
ADA Brian Buckelew, DA Harris’ Office (415) 553-1383
Erica Derryck, DA Harris’ Office (415) 553-1167
ROBBERS ARRESTED AFTER VICTIM AND POLICE TRACK DOWN STOLEN IPHONE USING GPS
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – District Attorney Kamala D. Harris announced today that Maifala Tusi, 23 of San Francisco, and Jerome J. Satele, 21 of San Francisco, were arraigned this morning in Department 10 of the San Francisco Superior Court on charges of robbery and felony possession of stolen property. Tusi remains in custody on $125,000 bail and Satele remains in custody on $75,000 bail. Both men were arrested hours after robbing a man and stealing his iPhone and Apple laptop computer. According to court documents, on April 2, 2010 at 9:55 a.m., a 41-year-old man was standing on Van Ness Ave. at Oak St. holding his laptop computer when a man approached him, and grabbed his laptop away from him. The robber fled down the street with the laptop, but the victim chased the robber down and tackled him to the ground. While the victim fought with the robber, the victim’s iPhone fell out of his pocket onto the ground. At that time, a second man emerged and grabbed the iPhone off the ground and ran into a light-colored Lexus. The first robber also ran to the light-colored Lexus with the stolen Apple laptop computer. The two men drove away. The car fled westbound on Oak St., but witnesses did not get a license plate number.
The SFPD arrived on scene and began taking a report. The victim told the police that he was able to track his iPhone using the phone's GPS that could be monitored using a tracking application on a computer. The victim logged onto a witness' work computer not far from the scene, pulled up the real-time GPS information of his iPhone and the SFPD officers broadcast that information to dispatch, which in turn disseminated the information to officers in the field.
Later that same morning, the GPS information indicated that the victim’s iPhone was stationary in the area of Egbert and Hawes streets, which is an intersection immediately adjacent to the Alice Griffith Housing Project (known as "Double Rock") in the Bayview. Officers responded to Egbert and Hawes, observed a parked Lexus and began conducting surveillance. Approximately an hour later, several occupants got into the vehicle and drove off. The police followed. Officers followed the Lexus and pulled it over at 6th Street and Clara Alley. As the officers made contact with the occupants of the vehicle, one of the officers noticed the middle passenger, later identified as Jerome Satele, pass an iPhone to the right rear passenger. Maifala Tusi was the front passenger of the vehicle. Officers seized the iPhone.
The victim of the robbery was transported to 6th St. and Clara Alley where he identified Maifala Tusi (who stands 6’1 and weighs 400 pounds) as the perpetrator of the robbery and identified Jerome Satele as the driver of the getaway car and the man who stole the iPhone off the ground. The victim later identified the iPhone seized from the defendants by the police as the iPhone that was taken from him during the robbery.
Tusi is alleged to have committed the robbery while on court release in his open felony case (CN 10008767). That case stems from an incident on March 19, 2010 where the defendant is alleged to have committed felony second-degree burglary, grant theft, possession of burglary tools and attempted possession of stolen property. The property that the defendant allegedly stole in that case was an Apple laptop computer. He had been out of custody a total of nine days before he allegedly committed the April 2nd robbery.
The arrest of Jerome Satele and Maifala Tusi is the result of a smart and thorough investigation by San Francisco Police Department Inspector Matthew Hanley and officers from Northern Station, including Officer Brett Thorp and Officer David Frias.
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