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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesBail Set for Man Accused of Killing Girlfriend

Bail Set for Man Accused of Killing Girlfriend

Starting at the prosecution’s request for bail set at $1 million, a Superior Court judge lowered that to $200,000 Thursday for a St. Thomas man accused of killing his girlfriend.
That amount still left 27-year-old Sidone Lake locked up with the V.I. Bureau of Corrections pending his trial on charges of first-degree murder for the shooting death of 25-year-old Kalelia Vanterpool on Feb. 18.
Originally, Lake said Vanterpool, his live-in girlfriend and mother of his child, had accidentally shot herself in a struggle during a lover’s quarrel. He was excused as a suspect in her death but charged with possession of a weapon with an obliterated serial number and for possessing marijuana with intent to sell, for which he was out on bail.
That all changed for Lake when a forensics expert and a medical examiner concluded that Vanterpool could only have been shot at a distance from across the room in her Oswald Harris Court apartment.
Leroy Parker, a forensics expert from Florida contracted by the VIPD, concluded that a lack of gunpowder burns on Vanterpool’s face or residue on her hands meant that she could not have shot herself, and that the gun was not fired at close range, according to police who testified at a recent hearing. The medical examiner said he believed the shot was fired from 5 to 6 feet away, police said.
Lake was rearrested on March 23 for murder.
Defense attorneys have tried to get the charges lowered to second-degree murder or manslaughter, but prosecutors are sticking to the murder-one charge so far, according to Ernest Bason, a V.I. Department of Justice prosecutor who stood in Thursday until the case is assigned to a permanent attorney.
Defense attorney Robert Leycock represented Lake in Superior Court Thursday.
The case has been tossed like a football between judges, from James Carroll III to Dunston to newly appointed Superior Court Judge Adam Christian, who will set the next hearing dates as the case moves to trial.
Lake remains a ward of the V.I. Bureau of Corrections until then, or until he can pay the $200,000 bail set by Dunston Thursday.

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