Judges in the federal District Courts on St. Croix handed down sentences in three separate cases Friday, U.S. Attorney Gretchen Shappert announced.
Dion Alfred-Carlton Williams
Dion Alfred-Carlton Williams, a 21-year-old from St. Croix, was sentenced to a term of approximately 12 months for possession of marijuana, according to Shappert.
Visiting Judge Timothy Savage sentenced Williams to time served after he was previously detained in February 2019 for violation of pretrial release conditions. Savage also ordered him to pay a $25 special assessment.
On March 28, 2019, Williams pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana. According to documents filed in court, on March 10, 2017, the defendant and his co-defendant attempted to enter the secure parking lot at the District Court to drop off paperwork. The defendant was the passenger in the car that his co-defendant drove to the court. The security officer denied them entrance and instructed the co-defendant driver to park in the visitor lot. The driver refused and caused a disturbance, causing a special agent to approach his car. The agent smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from the car.
A search of the car yielded two Ziploc bags containing 10 phials of marijuana. The co-defendant said the marijuana was for sale. The defendant told the security officer that he was an unemployed drug user and claimed the marijuana was his. The defendant also stated that he had just bought the marijuana for $100. The defendant was searched and what is known as a “dime bag” of marijuana was found on his person.
The case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Protective Service. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Rhonda Williams-Henry.
Jimmy Davis
Jimmy Davis, age 42 of St. Croix, was sentenced to federal prison in the St. Croix District Court after being convicted by jury trial of one count of possession of cocaine and one count of aggravated assault and battery, Shappert announced. The jury trial in this case proceeded from April 8 through April 12.
Chief Judge Wilma Lewis sentenced Davis to 12 months in prison on the possession of cocaine conviction and to an additional consecutive 12 months in prison on the aggravated assault and battery conviction. Additionally, after his release from prison, Davis will be placed on supervised release for a period of one year. He was also fined $1,000 and received a special assessment of $25 on the possession conviction and was fined $100 on the aggravated assault and battery conviction.
The aggregate 24-month sentence was also ordered to run consecutive to the 24-month sentence Davis previously received on Nov. 25, when his supervised release was revoked for assaulting and choking his live-in girlfriend. The earlier sentence followed his April jury trial convictions, and was consecutive to the 12-month sentence Davis received on Dec. 12, after pleading guilty to impeding and resisting a federal officer, following an episode where federal officers were trying to transport him to prison in Puerto Rico. All of Davis’s recent sentences were ordered to run consecutive, for an aggregate total of five years.
According to trial testimony, on Feb. 26, 2018, VIPD officers arrested Davis on an outstanding Superior Court warrant. At the time of his arrest Davis was in possession of 9.61 grams of crack cocaine, the records indicate. This cocaine was located in the Davis’s front right pants pocket. The DEA Southeast Laboratory in Miami, Florida, analyzed the crack cocaine and confirmed it to be cocaine base, a Schedule II controlled substance.
Additionally, while Davis was being processed and booked at the police station after his arrest, he became boisterous, verbally threatened and then intentionally kicked a VIPD officer in the right thigh. This occurred while the officer was discharging his official duties.
The Virgin Islands Police Department and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Huston prosecuted the case.
Jaheem Benjamin
Jaheem Benjamin, a St. Croix 33-year-old, was sentenced in the St. Croix District Court on one federal count of manufacture of marijuana, and one local count of illegal use of utility equipment.
Visiting Judge Timothy Savage sentenced Benjamin to a prison term of one day, followed by two years of supervised release and a special assessment of $100.
According to court documents, on Feb 14, 2017, Benjamin was apprehended for growing 137 marijuana plants in his garage. Benjamin was growing these marijuana plants for the purpose of harvesting them, in order to sell the marijuana. At the time of his arrest, Benjamin admitted that he sold a pound of marijuana for about $2,500 in order to make a living.
In order to grow his marijuana plants, Benjamin used electrical equipment set up inside his garage. Benjamin ran the electrical equipment using electricity passing through a meter belonging to the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority that had been tampered with and altered. In doing so, he was able to facilitate his marijuana grow operation, with the purpose of avoiding payment to WAPA for the electricity to run the marijuana grow operation.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and Task Force Officers with the VIPD. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Huston.
