Police announced Tuesday afternoon that a person incarcerated at the John A. Bell Adult Correctional Facility, Francisco Cruz-Santiago, was back in V.I. Corrections Bureau custody after briefly escaping.
Cruz-Santiago was most recently arrested for destruction of property and disturbing the peace in January after police were called to his mother’s house, where they found him with a hammer and machete. According to police, Cruz-Santiago admitted to damaging a storage room, pump room and tool shed on the property. He was taken to Juan F. Luis Hospital before being remanded to the Corrections Bureau.
During a status conference in V.I. Superior Court this month, Assistant Attorney General Chad Mitchell and Assistant Territorial Public Defender Leslie E. Davis told Magistrate Judge Christopher Timmons that Cruz-Santiago was unfit to stand trial. They requested 60 days to find a treatment facility, which Timmons granted.
Cruz-Santiago was previously arrested in 2024 and charged with attempted murder in what police at the time described as a fight over a chair at the Level Up Service Station. According to police, Cruz-Santiago filled a water bottle with gasoline, doused another man and attempted to light him on fire. He then put the other man in a chokehold, left, and returned with a metal baseball bat.
Cruz-Santiago was found incompetent to stand trial in that case as well. After failed attempts to place him in a treatment facility on the mainland, he was released to his mother’s custody to receive outpatient care. The charges were ultimately dismissed.
