ST. GEORGE —A parolee from Salt Lake County with a violent criminal history was arrested in Washington City, police say, after an individual tracked his wallet to the stolen vehicle the suspect was sitting in.

The suspect, 27-year-old Tonga Angilau, was later booked into jail facing nearly 30 charges, along with a no-bail hold issued by the Bureau of Prisons. Angilau lives in Kearns, which is a suburb of Salt Lake City.

The arrest was set in motion hours earlier when officers were dispatched to a report of a vehicle that was stolen from a parking lot in Washington City shortly before 12:30 p.m. on Monday. Officers arrived to learn that a suspect was seen checking various vehicles in a parking lot, purportedly to see if they were unlocked.

The reporting party obtained security footage that was handed over to police that showed the suspect walk past the camera toward the target vehicle, a white passenger car, and a few minutes later the car could be seen leaving the parking lot.

Officers also noted that just south of where the car was parked prior to it being taken, there was another vehicle that had been broken into. Authorities took the report and obtained the suspect’s description, but were unable to locate the suspect or the passenger car during a canvass of the area.

An hour later, officers responded to Walmart on Telegraph Street on a report of a theft and arrived to learn that a wallet had been stolen and the owner was able to track it to the Walmart parking lot in Washington City. When he arrived in the lot he found that his wallet was inside of a brown Toyota SUV with California plates.

The man also reportedly saw a suspect inside of the SUV who was changing his clothes, and then the suspect got out of the SUV and walked into the store. While inside, the suspect completed two transactions that totaled more than $400.

When officers ran the plates through emergency dispatch, they learned the SUV was reported as stolen out of St. George on an unrelated case.

Officers staged in the parking lot of Walmart on Telegraph watching for the suspect to exit the store, and when they saw a suspect, and as soon as he got in the SUV, officers conducted a traffic stop at gunpoint and the man was taken into custody by police.

During the arrest, officers located a brown leather wallet matching the one taken from the reporting party that contained three financial cards that belonged to the man who called police after tracking the wallet to the Walmart parking lot.

When asked, Angilau initially identified himself using a different name and date of birth, but later, the he was positively identified by an Adult Probation and Parole agent.

During a search of the vehicle, officers recovered a semiautomatic handgun and a sawed-off shotgun that were both loaded. They also recovered a black pouch containing a plastic bag with a large amount of suspected methamphetamine and paraphernalia.

While speaking with police, the report states the Angilau told officers he was given the bank cards to purchase a phone, a statement that was not supported by the owner of the wallet, who told officers he never gave the man the cards and didn’t even know who the man was.

The suspect said it was the Walmart employee who swiped the cards during the purchase – not him, and also told he was given the vehicle by the person who owns it.

Officers also noted that Angilau appeared to be bouncing and fidgeting in the seat, and was sweating profusely, even though the air conditioner in the patrol vehicle was running at the time. Also noted was his rapid speech and his face, which continued to twitch while speaking to police. This led authorities to believe he was under the influence of a stimulant.

The suspect told officers he did not want to talk any longer and he was arrested and transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility where corrections officers recovered 11 more transaction cards hidden in the suspect’s underwear.

The suspect was booked into jail facing nearly 30 charges, five of which were second-degree felonies that include one count of theft, possession of a stolen vehicle, carrying a concealed short-barrel shotgun or file and two counts of possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person.

One of the theft charges was submitted after the officer investigating the theft of the white passenger car was advised of the suspect’s arrest.

Angilau also faces 17 third-degree felony charges – including 13 counts of unlawful acquisition of a financial card, three counts of unlawful use of a financial card and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, along with five misdemeanors for theft, giving false information to a peace officer, two counts of shoplifting and possession of marijuana and paraphernalia.

While running a background check on the suspect, officers found a no-bail warrant issued by the Board of Pardons, along with a warrant listed in the nationwide crime database.

The no-bail warrant was issued on a 2021 felony firearms case that is pending trial, while the Bureau of Prisons warrant was issued after the suspect’s release on two 2014 robbery cases. In the first case, Angilau was sentenced to prison for admittedly beating a man for his cell phone,  and in the second the suspect assaulted a store employee during a theft.

In total, the suspect received three terms of 1-15 years in Utah State Prison, two of which were ordered to run consecutively, and he was transported to the facility to begin serving those sentences in March 2015. He was released on parole one year later.

Following the arrest in Washington City, the suspect remains in custody without bail.

This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

Cody Blowers was raised in South San Francisco, California. A 2013 graduate of Colorado Technical University, Cody earned her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice with a minor in paralegal studies. Through the course of her academic studies she discovered that writing is her true passion, and she is committed to providing credible, integrated news coverage. Cody joined St. George News in 2015, and when she’s not busy chasing the news, she can generally be found chasing her young granddaughter, Kali.

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