A St. John man convicted of stabbing and paralyzing a man in 2021 has been arrested again, just more than a year after his release, for stabbing another man.

Police detained Rupert Walters Jr., 50, Friday, four days after a warrant was issued for his arrest. Walters was allegedly harassing women walking near Cruz Bay’s Tap & Still around 9 p.m. on Dec. 10. Walters cursed the man who told him to stop before attacking him with a knife, according to court records.

A bystander intervened, throwing Walters to the ground, according to the Virgin Islands Police Department. The attack left blood on the street and a wooden fence. The victim was transported to the Myrah Keating-Smith Clinic for wounds to his head, hand, and abdomen.

Walters was charged with assault, use of a dangerous weapon, reckless endangerment, and other charges. His bail was set at $75,000. Walters, also known as Big Youth, has a long history of violence and arrests, and was well known to VIPD, according to court records.

In May 2021, a man leaving Beach Bar told police he saw Walters harassing an older man. When the victim told Walters to “chill out,” Walters attacked, stabbing the man in the neck. The two-inch puncture wound hit the victim’s spinal cord, leaving him partially paralyzed.

After a manhunt, Walters was arrested and charged with attempted murder, assault, use of a deadly weapon, mayhem, reckless endangerment, and other crimes. He pleaded not guilty at first but later accepted a deal. He was sentenced to three years in prison for third degree assault in February 2023, with credit given for time served.

Walters was released in 2024 but allegedly failed to pay associated fines and fees. The government filed a civil suit against him.

In 2016, Walters was charged with first-degree murder in the May 2015 shooting death of Kenson Jolly, 25. Jolly had been a suspect in a machete-and-knife fight that February that left the streets of Cruz Bay covered in blood.

Police came to suspect Walters in the murder and eventually charged him after a firearm was found in his vehicle that allegedly matched the murder weapon. Police searched Walters’ vehicle after he’d been involved in an altercation with another driver. A Virgin Islands Superior Court judge ruled the arrest and the search illegal and the firearm evidence was excluded, according to court records.

Incomplete court records online did not specify if Walters was convicted of a crime in the matter.

In 2012, Walters was charged with burglary, assault, and weapons charges that were eventually dismissed in 2014, according to court records.

In 2011, Walters was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, assault and battery, disturbance of the peace, and other crimes. He eventually pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and battery in a court or church and was sentenced to six months imprisonment — with all but 10 days suspended.

Court records were unclear on how or why the charges were resolved. That same year, Walters was charged with criminal contempt of court.

It’s pretty easy to guess what the residents of the Calabash Boom housing community on St. John want for the holidays: toilets that flush.

Residents of the affordable housing community located 2.5 miles south of Coral Bay (along the road to Salt Pond) have been without gray water in their toilets since Dec. 11, according to Mary Andrews, a 15-year resident.

The apartments at Calabash Boom are now owned by Jackson Development Company, LLC, which acquired the property about a year ago. JDC also bought several other affordable housing developments including Bellevue Village on Gifft Hill on St. John and Lovenlund on St. Thomas.

The townhouses on the Calabash Boom property are owned individually, but residents share infrastructure with the tenants of the eight apartment buildings.

Andrews said she made multiple attempts to reach officials at Jackson Development by phone and email, but her messages were not returned. Residents received letters on Dec. 16 stating that the pump at the gray-water treatment plant had failed, and a new one had been ordered.

The Source also tried to reach officials at Jackson Development Company starting on Dec. 15. On Monday, Dec. 22, an employee who answered the phone at the company’s office said, “A pump is to blame for (the breakdown) of the gray water circulation. A new one is on order and should arrive momentarily.” He identified himself only by his first name and said he is not an official spokesperson for the company.

The Calabash Boom housing community, which includes 24 townhouses and 48 apartments, has its own sewage treatment facility because there are no municipal systems for producing potable water or treating sewage beyond the town of Cruz Bay, roughly 10 miles away.

The on-premises facility filters whatever is flushed down the toilets and cleans the effluent to the point where it is considered “gray water” — safe enough to be recycled to use in toilets or to water plants. Potable water for showers and cooking is trucked in for tenants in the apartments while townhouse owners rely on rainwater stored in their cisterns.

Since Dec. 11, residents in the townhouses and the apartments have been filling jugs with water from their sinks and pouring it into their toilets. “I’m here by myself at the townhouse, filling my toilet tank with gallon jugs from the tap,” said one resident, a retired teacher. “I tried rigging up a hose, but it didn’t work. At times the floor becomes wet from the transfer. That’s a real danger for me, because I don’t want to take a fall.”

At age 84, Andrews also lives alone and said she has trouble lifting and carrying the gallons of water. She wonders how some of her neighbors cope, especially those in multi-generational households with many family members sharing one bathroom.

This is not the first time that the gray water system at Calabash Boom has failed. According to Andrews, starting July 4 there was no water in the toilets for 12 days until repairs were made to underground pipes.

“When the septic system goes back on after being off, the gray water isn’t filtered properly.  It goes in the toilets, and it’s nasty,” said the retired teacher.

She said smelly effluent is now leaking from pipes, running down the roadways and pooling in places like the basketball courts and areas where children play.

After agreeing to take photographs and video clips for this story, the retired teacher said, “Now that I’ve walked around, I’m really upset with this situation. I’m thinking of the health hazard to residents, pets and wildlife in the area … there are donkeys, chickens, birds, tortoises, iguanas. When the septic reaches Coral Harbor and Johnson Bay, all marine life is affected by this sewage leak. It’s not just a pump issue.”

Calabash Boom residents say maintenance has often been a problem at the housing community. Since the development was built, there have been at least three management companies. “The first one wasn’t good. The next one was horrible. And the third tried, but there still was nothing going on,” said the retired teacher.

Jackson Development Company bought the property in the last year as a way to address maintenance concerns and allow tenants to purchase their units. Calabash Boom was built by Reliance Housing Foundation, the nonprofit affordable housing developer where Robert “Bob” Jackson was the CEO.

“These properties were originally built with federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) funding allocated by the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority,” Jackson explained to the Source last January. Clifford Graham, one of Jackson’s current partners at Jackson Development Company, was the executive director at VIHFA when these properties were built. (VIHFA was instrumental in the financing of the recent sales of the properties.)

“An important part of the original development plan was to provide for the conversion to affordable homeownership after the initial 15-year rental period required under the tax credit program,” Jackson said. “I left employment at Reliance in 2013, and they closed their doors in 2015. Likewise, Cliff left VIHFA in 2011. However, we both have felt an obligation to fulfill the original promise to convert these properties to affordable homeownership.”

In many ways, Calabash Boom is a successful affordable housing community, many residents say.  “It’s a great community,” said the retired teacher, “and a nice neighborhood.  I’ve enjoyed it, but not with these health hazards.”