Homicides 2008

Here is a chronological log of the homicides recorded in 2008, with statistics broken down by island.
(1) STX
(1) Territory
Date of death: Jan. 5
Edwin Dukes was shot several times and died at the Juan F. Luis Hospital. The incident happened at the Frederiksted Beach in the early morning hours.
(1) STT
(2) Territory
Date of death: Jan. 29
Paulette Joseph, 41, was brutally attacked and later died of her injuries at the Schneider Regional Medical Center. Lemy Vergile, identified by police as her boyfriend, was arrested hours after the assault and charged with first degree murder.

(2) STX
(3) Territory
Date of death: Feb. 27
Wilfredo Garcia died from multiple gunshot wounds. Garcia’s body was found on King Street, Christiansted across the street from the St. John’s Episcopal Church. He had recently been released from prison on bail pending felony charges. He was a resident of Tan Tan Terrace.

(3) STX
(4) Territory
Date of death: April 18
Gabriel Thomas, a native of Dominica who lived in Estate Glenn, was shot and killed by assistant Attorney General Kip Roberson after Thomas threatened his former employer and Roberson at the Smugglers Cove Restaurant in Christiansted.

(4) STX
(5) Territory
Date of death: April 20
Dean Martin, 24, of Estate Peter’s Rest died in a private vehicle en route to the hospital after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds to the body. The incident apparently occurred in the vicinity of Building No. 6 Estate Peter’s Rest.

(5) STX
(6) Territory
Date of death: May 17
Erwin Michael "Juma" Ritter, 54, of Clifton Hill, was found at 1:06 a.m. in a bus shanty near the St. Croix Central High gym in Estate Clifton Hill. He had been shot multiple times. He was pronounced dead at the Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital.

(2) STT
(7) Territory
Date of death: May 18
The body of Fritz Geffrard, 49, was found near the basketball court in Smith Bay at 12:08 a.m. Geffrard, who was pronounced dead at the scene, had been shot several times. On Sept. 7 police arrested Austrie Isaac, 25, a naturalized V.I. citizen, and Charmane Clarke, 36, a St. Thomas native, and charged them with Geffrard’s murder.
(3) STT
(8) Territory
Date of death: May 18
The body of Roland Samuel, 57, was found in the area of Simmons Alley on St. Thomas. He was shot in the upper thigh and the bullet may have punctured a major artery, according to preliminary medical reports.

(4) STT
(9) Territory
Date of death: May 20
Anell Mulrain, 19, was found in the middle of the road below the Tutu Valley basketball court at 3:34 p.m. He had been shot multiple times. Mulrain was still alive when officers arrived. He died a short time later.

(6) STX
(10) Territory
Date of death: May 21
Shadrach Frett was shot multiple times in his hospital bed at the Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital where he was recuperating from a shooting incident earlier in the month. Police arrested Nathaniel Thomas, 21, Armand Thomas, 25, Andrea, Soto, 20, and Okimo Milligan 21, on May 22 and charged them with illegal substances and possession of unlicensed firearms. Police said the arrests were in connection with the hospital shooting.

(7) STX
(11) Territory
Date of death: June 11
Dale Hendricks, a 29-year-old Golden Rock resident, was beaten to death after a car accident. Several hours later, at approximately 7:26 a.m., police arrested 22-year-old Jeremy Davis Cheiuk and charged him with second-degree murder in Hendricks’ death.

(5) STT
(12) Territory
Date of death: June 13
Ta-hum Joseph, 34, was found shot to death at the Oswald Harris Court housing community after police responded to a 911 call of "shots fired" at about 7:50 p.m.

(6) STT
(13) Territory
Date of death: June 15
The body of Prince Mills, 41, was found riddled with bullets in an abandoned home in Smith Bay around 9:30 a.m.

(8) STX
(14) Territory
Date of death: June 15
Imelda Wells, 25, of the John F. Kennedy housing community, was shot and killed while standing in the parking lot of a mid-island nightclub about 4 a.m. June 15. Five days later 20-year-old Noel Chaparro Jr. was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in Wells’ death.

(7) STT
(15) Territory
Date of death: June 16
An unidentified man was found surrounded by spent bullet casings, shot multiple times, by police responding to a call about shots being fired on Lower Kronprindsens Gade.

(8) STT
(16) Territory
Date of death: June 22
29-year-old Lyndon Scott was one of two men gunned down in a church parking lot near Market Square.

(9) STT
(17) Territory
Date of death: June 22
Lorn Francis was one of two men gunned down in a church parking lot near Market Square.

(9) STX
(18) Territory
Date of death: June 26
Greg Liburd, 31, was found with three bullet holes in his body at 9:40 p.m. in the street near King Cross and Queen Street in Frederiksted.

(10) STX
(19) Territory
Date of death: July 2
Juan Berrios, 27, was shot in the leg June 28 while driving in the Estate Mon Bijou area. He was taken to Juan F. Luis Hospital after his car wrecked, where he died less than three days later.

(10) STT
(20) Territory
Date of death: July 7
Retired St. Thomas police Sgt. Liston Gumbs died after getting shot in the left side of his stomach while struggling with a male attempting to rob a grocery store in the Lindberg Bay area. The suspect fled on foot after getting less than $300 from the cash register.

(11) STT
(21) Territory
Date of death: July 16
A shooting in Hospital Ground resulted in the death of Dwayne Lynch, 30. Police say Lynch was driving and trying to flee pursuers in another vehicle when he had an accident. He was shot after fleeing on foot following the wreck. Information gathered at the scene led officers to apprehend three suspects within minutes of the shooting. Arrested near the Western Cemetery were Carlos Acosta, Kaleb Josue and Edgar Ortiz, all Puerto Rico natives in their early-to-mid 20s. All three were charged with first-degree murder.

(12) STT
(22) Territory
Date of death: July 22
A shooting at the Déjà Vu Bar resulted in one death and one injury. Aneury Baez Reyna, 25, was charged with first-degree murder and assault. A Hispanic male, who police have not yet identified, died at the hospital the day after the shooting. Reyna also allegedly shot at a police officer before fleeing the scene. He was arrested July 22 at the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport on St. Croix.

(13) STT
(23) Territory
Date of death: July 31
Kamal Percell, 23, died at the hospital after getting shot in the back and chest at least five times, according to police. The shooting took place at the Oswald Harris Court Housing Community at approximately 2:02 a.m.

(11) STX
(24) Territory
Date of death: Aug. 11
Roy Greg Marshall, 22, died in a hail of bullets. Marshall was found in a white Chevrolet Cavalier with three bullet holes to the back door on the driver’s side, three bullet holes in the rear fender on the driver’s side and one bullet hole in the trunk.

(14) STT
(25) Territory
Date of death: before Aug. 8
Police found the decomposing body of an unidentified man in an abandoned house near Cabrita Point. He died of blunt force trauma to the head, and appeared to have died several days earlier.

(15) STT
(26) Territory
Date of death: Aug. 17
Manassa Caines, 70, was shot and killed in the parking lot at the Thomasville housing community, where he lived. He had just finished his shift as a taxi driver, and police believe he died in an attempted robbery.

(12) STX
(27) Territory
Date of death: Aug. 18
Shada Mustafa, 30, was found lying in his front yard in William’s Delight with multiple gunshot wounds to the body. He was rushed by ambulance to Juan F. Luis Hospital, but died there about three hours later.

(16) STT
(28) Territory
Date of death: Aug. 28
The body of a resident of Oswald Harris Court Housing Community, Abasi Furet, 30, was found lying in the southbound lane of Centerline Road near Building 1 after shots were reported around 9:18 p.m. Furet had sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the body and was pronounced dead at the scene.

(17) STT
(29) Territory
Date of death: Sept. 3
Police found Richard Walker, 39, dead near Jah Yard in Hospital Ground from multiple gunshot wounds, with his hands tied behind his back.

(13) STX
(30) Territory
Date of death: Sept. 10
Christian Soto III, son of a St. Croix, jockey, died in the hospital following a shooting incident three days before. Police say Soto was an incident bystander, shot when the gunman’s intended target — a 27-year-old adult male — ducked into a crowd. The adult male was shot multiple times in the body and remains hospitalized. Another bystander, a 17-year-old minor, sustained a flesh wound.

(14) STX
(31) Territory
Date of death: Sept. 11
Malik Felix, 41, died in Estate Ginger Thomas from multiple gunshots to his body. A 16-year-old shooting victim showed up at Gov. F. Juan Luis Hospital the same day, and police were investigating whether the shootings were connected.

(18) STT
(32) Territory
Date of death: Sept. 11
Nevis native Sydney Herbert, 52, was found shot to death in the driver’s seat of a green 1993 Toyota Tercel in Hospital Ground.

(19) STT
(33) Territory
Date of death: Sept. 20
Police are investigating the weekend murder of a man found shot to death inside a vehicle in the Contant area on St. Thomas.

(20) STT
(34) Territory
Date of death: Sept. 22
A 35-year-old man died in the hospital several hours after getting shot in the head around 7 a.m. in the parking lot of Emerald Beach Hotel. Police charged two men with the shooting: Nigel Maynard, 22, and Ezekiel Daniel, 21.