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Sentencing Postponed For Cockayne Assault Charges

Nov. 14, 2008 — Questions raised by defense attorneys about whether Kamal Thomas and Anselmo Boston beat James "Jamie" Cockayne before his murder in June 2007 forced V.I. Superior Court Judge Brenda J. Hollar Friday to think twice about the duo's recent assault and weapons convictions, and postpone their sentencing for another few weeks.
After a five-day trial and about nine hours of deliberation, a 12-member jury found Thomas and Boston guilty last month on two counts each of third-degree assault and related weapons charges, which prosecutors said applied to an altercation Boston had with Cockayne at the Front Yard Bar on St. John. Prosecutors argued that after the fight, Boston and Thomas, each toting sticks, pursued Cockayne up the street and beat him, making him an easy target for Jahlil Ward, convicted of stabbing Cockayne to death a short while later. (See "Ward To Spend Life Behind Bars for Cockayne Murder.")
Ward's attorney, Michael Quinn, argued Friday that Hollar should also acquit his client of the first-degree murder conviction, saying that there was no evidence to support a charge of "premeditated murder." Hollar did not rule on Quinn's motion, but gave both prosecuting and defense attorneys two weeks to file briefs about whether Ward would be cleared of the charge in its entirety or would instead be sentenced to second-degree murder if the motion for acquittal were granted.
The first-degree murder charge carries a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.
But the real win Friday was for defense attorneys Michael Joseph and Benjamin Currence, who argued that none of the evidence presented during trial showed that Thomas and Boston ever touched Cockayne before his death, or used any kind of weapon that would have threatened "death or serious bodily harm."
Hollar was swayed by the arguments, saying that the government, on the first set of third-degree assault charges, had never stated that Thomas struck Cockayne with the two-by-four witnesses said they saw him tuck under his shirt after Cockayne left the bar. The charges simply stated that Thomas followed Cockayne up the street and brandished the piece of wood, which only constitutes simple assault, she said.
"Brandishing a stick is not battery," Hollar said to prosecuting attorneys Renee Gumbs Carty and Brenda Scales. "So where is there evidence to support the charge of third-degree assault with a deadly weapon? You never stated that they (Thomas and Boston) did anything but surround Mr. Cockayne, follow him and brandish the sticks."
Since there was no battery charge, it could not be implied that the two-by-four-was used as a deadly weapon, Hollar said, as she granted the defense's motions to reduce the first set of third-degree assault charges against Boston and Thomas. The judge also dismissed each of the related weapons convictions, saying that they applied to the use of a deadly weapon during the commission of a third-degree assault, as opposed to a case of simple assault.
The second set of assault charges against Thomas and Boston is a different story, Hollar added. In Thomas' case, the government charged that he actually struck Cockayne with the piece of wood, and provided circumstantial evidence — including witness testimony and a medical examiner's report — that would support the jury's guilty verdict, she added.
But Joseph disagreed, saying there was nothing in the medical examiner's report that indicated the contusions and lacerations to Cockayne's body were in fact the result of a beating with a two-by four.
"No evidence was provided with any medical certainty that would allow us to classify those injuries as deadly," he said. "The word 'serious' has to be into context here."
In Boston's case, the second set of assault and weapons charges apply to the altercation he and Cockayne had inside the bar. Boston even admitted in a subsequent police statement to hitting Cockayne over the neck and shoulder with a pool stick, Scales said.
But no witness testimony to that effect was provided during trial, Currence countered. Instead, two witnesses testified to seeing or hearing the pool stick break on a window sill, while a third witness said that he had seen an "uninjured" and boisterous Cockayne about a half hour after the fight at Front Yard, he added.
"There are either two scenarios here," Currence said. "Either Mr. Boston tried to hit Mr. Cockayne and missed, or he hit Mr. Cockayne and broke the stick — either way, the stick wasn't used as a deadly weapon."
Hollar did not make a ruling on the motion to clear the second set of assault and weapons convictions against Thomas and Boston. The two attorneys said they would be expanding their arguments in briefs due in by Dec. 5.
At that time, Hollar said she would be issuing an opinion on the remainder of the charges against Thomas, Boston and Ward, and would schedule a sentencing hearing shortly after.
A third-degree assault charge carries a maximum sentence of five years, while the weapons charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of two and a half years and a maximum sentence of 15 years.
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