Former Yona mayor faces up to 20 years in jail on extortion charge

Former Yona Mayor Jesse Blas appearing in District Court of Guam this morning to officially change his plea to guilty.

Last week he signed a plea agreement just prior to resigning from his elected position.

Arrested in September 2019 and indicted on 13 counts of extortion and bribery charges for allowing drug trafficking through Yona village cluster boxes, but today Jesse Blas pleads guilty to one count of extortion that's specifically in line with the Nov. 21, 2018 date of crime. The day the government's informant Brenda Kinnian approached former Yona Mayor Blas to register for a cluster box.
It was stated in court that on this day Kinnian gave Blas $300 for the cluster box and said "thank you for helping me." While the cluster boxes are free for residents, Blas accepted the money as a token of donation for Yona. Chief Judge Frances Tydingco Gatewood asked Blas during his change of plea hearing if he knew Kinnian would be using the cluster box to receive packages that contained drugs? He said at the time he did not know and it wasn't until later.

In the plea agreement and as discussed during the hearing Blas accepted almost $12,000 in bribes from Kinnian, which the government has filed for forfeiture.

His attorney Joseph Razzano, however, disputes the amount because he's only pleaded guilty to accepting a $300 bribe.


"The acceptance of responsibility was to count one which he plead guilty to and the amounts are going to be contested in a contestant forfeiture hearing," she said. 

According to the plea agreement, the remaining charges will be dismissed at sentencing. Blas faces a maximum of 20 years behind bars, a fine up to $250,000  and a maximum three-year term of supervised release. Sentencing was set for May 4 with arguments expected to be heard on the contested forfeiture matter.