Two St. Croix men have pleaded guilty to illegal sex acts with children, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
Keithley Jones, 54, pleaded guilty to aggravated rape, unlawful sexual contact, and child abuse for two years of brazen assaults against a girl under 13, Attorney General Gordon C. Rhea announced Tuesday.
The child was nine years old when Jones began touching and rubbing against her in 2019. On multiple occasions, Jones lured the girl just outside her home and assaulted her while her mother was inside, unaware, according to court records.
Jones, who had known the child since she was a toddler, told her to keep the attacks a secret, plying her with chicken and soda, according to police reports. The assaults escalated. In March 2022, the girl told her mother, who called police. She also took the girl to Juan F. Luis Hospital for examination for fear of a sexually transmitted disease.
When informed of the investigation, Jones suggested a neighborhood boy may be to blame. He also said, “There are 20 sides to a story,” according to court records.
At least one teenage girl in the neighborhood said she avoided Jones because he had made inappropriate, sexually suggestive remarks to her.
Jones did not show up for a scheduled videotaped interview in March 2022 and declined to give police a further statement. He was arrested and charged in October.
On what was to be the first day of jury selection, Jones pleaded guilty, Rhea said. He was scheduled to be sentenced in February. He faces up to 15 years in prison and will be required to register as a sex offender.
Juan “Tio Felo” Bermudez, 66, pleaded guilty to federal crimes of coercing a preadolescent 13-year-old girl into sex acts he filmed in the spring of 2022. Although Bermudez avoided rape charges, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life imprisonment.
It is illegal in the Virgin Islands for someone over 18 to engage in sex with someone under 18.
According to a Justice Department National Crime Victimization Survey 2019, every 73 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. Americans, ages 12 to 34, are the highest risk years for rape and sexual assault
