Territorial Court Judge Audrey Thomas-Francis found probable cause Tuesday to charge Ian Tracy with first-degree murder and illegal weapons possession in connection with the shooting death of Adassa Rolle on Dec. 31.
Tracy, 19, was placed on $300,000 bail during an initial appearance in court, where the government presented part of its case.
V.I. Police Major Crime Detective Delbert Phipps testified that Tracy, in a statement to investigators, said he and Rolle, 18, left the Old Mill nightclub, stopped to get a bite to eat and drove to Green Cay Plantation, a stone's throw from Donkey Hill.
There they settled into the back seat of the sport utility vehicle where Rolle began to undress. Tracy told police that while seated in the back seat he saw the shadow of a partially masked man in the right rear window of his vehicle. The masked man stuck a gun in the window and demanded money, Tracy told police.
"He indicated that he struggled with the gunman and in the scuffle several shots fired off," Phipps testified. Tracy told police he then drove off at a high rate of speed past Donkey Hill and toward Vessup Bay.
Tracy told police that during the drive from the scene of the shooting, he called out the victim's name several times. He then flagged down a passerby whom he asked to call 911 and report the shooting.
Under questioning by prosecutor Lofton Holder, Phipps testified that he observed two lumps on Tracy's head and cuts on his left hand. The cuts on his hand, Phipps testified, indicated improper handling of a semi-automatic pistol wherein the recoil of the hammer slide would hit the area between the thumb and index finger of the shooter, causing a laceration.
Phipps told the court there were inconsistencies in Tracy's statements to police when compared to the evidence gathered at the scene. Officers of the major crime unit took Tracy back to the scene the morning of the shooting, and several drops of blood were found. Recovered evidence also includes: a spent casing from a 9 mm gun under Rolle's body, a bullet under the rear underside of the driver's seat, Tracy's jeans pants found behind the driver's seat with blood stains, and blood stains on the handle bars along the inside of the vehicle's roof.
Phipps also testified that evidence of a gunpowder burn was found on the face of the victim, indicating that the shooting was at close range, between 18 and 24 inches from Rolle's face.
Thomas-Francis set Jan. 18 for an arraignment hearing. Tracy was represented by attorney Treston Moore.
