Police & Courts

A 15-year-old boy died Friday after being shot multiple times in the area of Vester Gade on St. Thomas, according to the Virgin Islands Police Department.

A St. Croix man was arrested June 5 on charges of possession of an unlicensed firearm and simple assault and battery-domestic violence, according to the Virgin Islands Police Department.

A St. Croix man was arrested Wednesday after a woman reported he strangled her during a domestic disturbance at Harbor View Housing Apartments, according to the Virgin Islands Police Department.

A Virgin Islands man pleaded guilty to smuggling 88.67 grams of fentanyl into St. Croix by mail, enough to potentially kill every resident of the island, officials said Wednesday.

A federal judge Wednesday sentenced convicted felon, cybersecurity contractor and star witness David Whitaker to 22 months in prison for his role in a bribery scheme that roiled the territory and led to multiple high-profile resignations and convictions.

The woman found in Salt Pond Bay Thursday morning likely drowned, police said Wednesday, contrary to nearly a week of widespread public speculation about the nature of her death.

A federal judge Tuesday sentenced former V.I. Police Commissioner Ray Martinez to 120 months in prison for his part in a kickback scheme involving a convicted felon-turned cybersecurity contractor, federal assistance funds and an attempted cover-up. 

The Virgin Islands Police Department, the Virgin Islands National Park, and St. John Rescue responded to reports of a lifeless woman in the waters of Salt Pond, St. John on Thursday — five days ago. Unlike almost every other such death, none of those emergency responders will say what happened.

Officers from the Department of Homeland Security detained a St. Thomas man last week who had allegedly packed 500 rounds of live ammunition in his and a travel companion’s suitcases.

A St. Thomas Bovoni resident was injured and robbed of money and jewelry after multiple masked individuals armed with firearms forced their way into his home Friday morning, according to the Virgin Islands Police Department.

A St. Croix woman was arrested Saturday after police said she forced her way into an apartment, armed herself with knives and attempted to assault the occupant during a domestic disturbance at the Candido Guadelupe housing apartments.

A man was arrested and charged after a woman reported she was sexually assaulted inside a McDonald's restaurant in Estate La Reine, St. Croix, according to the Virgin Islands Police Department.

A woman was arrested after police said she slashed another woman in the face during an altercation at Coki Point Beach on St. Thomas, according to the Virgin Islands Police Department.

Two men were killed and two other people were injured in a shooting early Sunday morning at Luna Bar in Peter's Rest on St. Croix, the Virgin Islands Police Department reported.

An ad hoc group of creditors in Brett “Mac” McClafferty’s bankruptcy proceedings is seeking a 60-day extension to file a “nondischargeability action” against him because he continues to evade requests for information and acts with “utter disregard for his duties as a chapter 13 debtor and general disrespect for the bankruptcy process,” according to a motion filed Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

U.S. Marshals arrested the owner of the St. John Ink tattoo parlor for allegedly fleeing assaulting-an-officer charges in Florida, officials said Thursday.

In memoranda filed in U.S. District Court Tuesday, federal prosecutors asked a judge to sentence former V.I. Police Commissioner Ray Martinez to up to 30 years in prison and former Management and Budget Director Jenifer O’Neal to seven years following their conviction on charges of wire fraud, bribery and money laundering conspiracy. Martinez was also found guilty of obstructing justice. 

The 28-page opinion, handed down Monday and authored by Circuit Judge Thomas Hardiman, found that the issue was not, “as the Government frames it, ‘whether to seek the death penalty’ falls within the purview of the Executive Branch; it does. … Instead, the issue is whether courts have the right to manage their cases; they do.”

Compliance monitors and lawyers from the U.S. Department of Justice told a federal judge on St. Thomas they looked forward to the day when the Virgin Islands Police Department will no longer be subject to a consent decree first imposed in 2009. Testimony and statements to that effect were heard late last week before Chief District Judge Robert Molloy at a compliance hearing.

Commissioner Mario M. Brooks expressed his enthusiasm for the territory being selected to host the prestigious event.