Saying a former government prosecutor violated terms of a plea-bargain agreement in order to get a stiffer sentence for a convicted murderer, a three-judge appellate panel has voided the 35-year jail sentence of Bradley "Hurtie" Maxwell.
According to the Virgin Islands Daily News, the three-judge panel, which included two District Court judges and a Territorial Court judge, found that when a plea bargain agreement is violated, the resulting sentence must be vacated.
The three judges, Raymond Finch and Thomas K. Moore of the District Court and Alphonso G. Andrews of the V.I. Territorial Court, ruled that then-Assistant Attorney General Gary Allizeo failed to ask the court in October 1998 to sentence Maxwell to 20 years for the murder conviction, plus five years to run concurrently for his conviction on escape-from-custody charges.
Instead Allizeo appealed to the court to protect the community from Maxwell by punishing him for the death of Wet Willy's bar owner John Alfred Adams in September 1997 and his escape in June 1998. Allizeo noted in his presentation at sentencing that Maxwell had a troubled childhood and had developed into a heinous criminal.
Now retired, Presiding Territorial Court Judge Verne A. Hodge noted at the time that Allizeo's presentation was for a much more severe sentence than that reached in the plea bargain; he sentenced Maxwell to 30 years on the second-degree murder conviction and five years for the escape charge, with the charges to run consecutively.
The appellate panel noted in its ruling Aug. 24 that the local court must reassign Maxwell's re-sentencing to another judge now that Hodge is retired.
Maxwell, who has pleaded not guilty to escaping from custody on July 31, is scheduled to go on trial next month. Attorney General Iver Stridiron has not released findings of an investigation into Maxwell's escape from the Golden Grove Correctional Facility in St. Croix.
Maxwell reportedly used a hacksaw blade to cut through his cell's iron bars. He remained on the loose for 10 days before surrendering to authorities near the Louis Brown Villas on St. Croix.
Maxwell faces up to 10 years in jail for the most recent escape, a $2,000 fine or both.
