Prosecutors and police say 28-year-old Jody Penn used an AK-47 assault rifle, a weapon common to war zones such as Iraq, Afghanistan and the Congo, to gun down 26-year-old Dion Henry on a dead-end St. Thomas street Thursday.
The Anna’s Fancy homicide, the 22nd this year in the territory, may mark an escalation in the bloody fighting over street corners and trash-strewn alleyways and strip clubs that island gangsters have staked out as their turf.
The VIPD brass in recent press conferences, and individual officers on their beats, have spoken recently of the existence and trafficking of assault rifles such as AK-47s in the territory.
Thursday’s murder in broad daylight proves that some are willing to use them.
Arguing for a steep bail for Penn Thursday, V.I. Department of Justice prosecutor Edward Veronda said Penn’s possession of an AK-47 “by itself is a serious crime and shows that he is a danger to the community.”
That Penn “successfully used an AK-47 in the island of St. Thomas in a first degree murder,” Veronda said, warranted the $300,000 bail the V.I. Attorney General requested in the case.
Superior Court Judge Michael Dunston agreed with the prosecution that Penn posed a serious threat to the community and was a flight risk because he faced a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison for possessing the weapons with obliterated serial numbers, and life in prison without parole if convicted for first-degree murder as charged.
An AK-47, Dunston said, has “no useful purpose other than to shoot human beings….” He ordered Penn held on $200,000 cash bail, but said another judge may change that when Penn is arraigned on April 15.
According to VIPD Major Crimes detective Albion George, police were called to the neighborhood in Anna’s Fancy at about 8:50 a.m. Thursday after neighbors reported that numerous shots had been fired.
“We discovered a young, black male lying face down in what appeared to be blood with multiple gunshots in his body,” George said in Superior Court Friday.
Spent 7.62 mm shell casings – the kind used in an AK-47 — lay on the ground nearby.
When police interviewed witnesses, one said they heard the gunfire and then saw Penn run into a vacant house “sweating profusely,” George said. The witness heard what sounded like the clearing of a weapon shortly thereafter.
Another witness who knew Penn said he ran from the vacant house to the witnesss’s house. Penn told the witness that the police would be coming for him, and to tell police that he had been with the witness all morning, George said.
Penn tossed the black clothes he was wearing into a washing machine and took a shower at the witness’s house, police said.
It was unclear from Friday’s testimony whether police arrested Penn at his own residence or at the vacant house where he first ran. Penn waived his rights and made a statement, telling police he had been with a neighbor all morning helping install a stove and refrigerator.
After they arrested him, however, police searched the vacant property where Penn had just been and found the AK-47, a .40 caliber Glock pistol, and piles of ammunition for both weapons, neither of which was registered to Penn. He had no permission to own or possess a weapon in the territory, George said.
In a police photograph issued to the media Friday, the weapons and ammunition are displayed on a desk along with electrical tape, a scope, extra banana clips for the AK-47 and speed-loading clips for the Glock, weapons cleaner and small bricks wrapped in cellophane.
The assault rifle was outfitted with a folding stock, which is often used for close-in or urban combat.
Not to be totally outdone, however, the victim was found carrying a snub-nosed .357 revolver with the serial number scratched off.
Penn, a wiry man with a thick mane of dreadlocks, stood as the judge advised him or his rights Friday. Charges against him include first-degree murder, unlawful possession of a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence, reckless endangerment and first-degree assault.
Defense attorney Robert Leycock argued for a smaller bail and a provision that he could be released after posting 10 percent. Leycock lost the argument.
“A cash bond in a substantial amount is appropriate,” Judge Dunston said after reviewing the testimony that led him to find probable cause for the charges Friday.
Penn will be arraigned in the court of Superior Court Judge Brenda Hollar at 9 a.m. on April 15.
“We want to thank the residents of the Anna’s Fancy for their cooperation leading to the swift arrest of Jody Penn and the discovery and confiscation of two firearms and ammunition,” Police Commissioner Novelle Francis said in an earlier statement announcing the murder and swift arrest.
Francis reminded the public that there is a standing $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of any homicide suspect. All calls and information will be kept confidential. Anyone having information on this homicide or any other case is urged to call 911, the Major Crimes Bureau at 712-6075 the Criminal Investigation Bureau at 712-6077 or Crime Stoppers USVI at 1-800-222-TIPS.
