Virgin Islands deaths: People face crime, violence amid rising considerations over US territory’s policing

The U.S. Virgin Islands is usually a harmful place – and though they’re technically a U.S. territory, American households have struggled to acquire justice there when their family members have fallen sufferer to violent crime.

The motto, “No passport required for U.S. residents,” is watermarked within the nook of the islands’ tourism web site, which boasts of world-class waters, idyllic seashores, “out of doors adventures” and a wealthy heritage and tradition.

Nonetheless, there’s a darkish aspect of paradise. The latest United Nations information on the islands’ murder charge from 2012 exhibits 49.28 per 100,000 residents. The islands have routinely failed to completely report murder information to the FBI going again years, information present.

For comparability the charge in Chicago in 2021 was estimated to be 29.8 per 100,000, primarily based on metropolis crime stats and information from the Census Bureau. Antigua and Barbuda, one other nation of Caribbean islands to the east, had a murder charge of 9 in 2020, in accordance with the U.N. The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention mentioned the speed within the mainland U.S. was 7.8 in 2020.

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Jamie Cail performs throughout the Phillips 66 Nationwide Championship on the Centennial Sportsplex in Nashville, Tennessee on Aug. 1, 1997. Inset left: Her boyfriend Kamal Thomas in a 2007 reserving picture after he was charged within the stabbing dying of Pennsylvania man Jamie Cockayne, 21, inset proper. (Getty Photos)

The development is seemingly nothing new. United Press Worldwide reported in 1981 that eight American journey writers invited to put in writing concerning the tropical paradise have been mugged in entrance of the legislative constructing on St. Thomas when their bus acquired caught in visitors.

Even then, the U.S. Virgin Islands have been seeing extra murders and rapes than different Caribbean islands and the mainland United States, UPI reported.

As soon as a homicide has been dedicated, households are sometimes left to research it themselves – with police allegedly lax in how they method fundamental investigatory practices, in accordance with quite a few individuals who have described the method to Fox Information Digital.

Former swimming champ Jamie Cail was discovered unresponsive by her boyfriend on the island of St. John, in accordance with Virgin Islands Police. Authorities have opened a prison investigation into her dying however haven’t named a suspect publicly or launched many updates three weeks later. (Fb/Jamie Cail)

Discussions have been cropping up in island Fb teams concerning oversight of the island’s police power – which up to now has been accused of failing to correctly examine circumstances. A former police commissioner wrote an op-ed interesting to witnesses to return ahead with proof of crimes. Quite a few island residents have instructed Fox Information Digital they’re afraid to talk out on the file resulting from severe considerations about their security.

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Sarm Heslop steers a sailboat in a July 2020 picture posted to her Instagram account. The U.Ok. native has been lacking since March 8, 2021, after she was final seen leaving a bar on St. John within the U.S. Virgin Islands. (Sarm Heslop/Instagram)

In 2021, when the British flight attendant Sarm Heslop was reported lacking from her boyfriend’s 47-foot yacht, police failed to acquire a search warrant for the vessel. Months later, they instructed Fox Information Digital {that a} court docket had denied their requests for one – regardless of the boyfriend’s prior home violence conviction and that he instructed her that is the place she had final been seen.

The boyfriend, Ryan Bane, then employed the identical lawyer as Jeffrey Epstein’s former confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell. Epstein, a convicted intercourse trafficker who died in a federal jail in 2019, infamously maintained a non-public island within the territory.

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in undated proof picture. Epstein owned a non-public island within the U.S. Virgin Islands, derided by locals as “Pedophile Island.” (Justice Division)

One U.S. tech govt, who instructed Fox Information Digital his agency does contract work for the Virgin Islands Police Division, mentioned the division has “a number of good detectives” operating in opposition to a “lack of dedication.”

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“They’re completely making essential errors, avoiding simple to finish investigative duties, avoiding investigative strategies which are time-consuming or exhausting, and so on.,” he mentioned Thursday.

In 2005, a Connecticut native named David Geiger and his then-14-year-old son have been attacked by Renell Lettsome in one other house invasion theft, court docket information present. Lettsome beat them each with a pipe, stabbed the daddy to dying and lit the home on hearth. 

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Prosecutors relocated Lettsome’s girlfriend, who labored for Geiger, to Florida in alternate for a witness assertion and to assuage her security considerations, in accordance with court docket paperwork.

By then, Lettsome had escaped to the close by British Virgin Islands, the place he surrendered to native authorities a month later. He instructed them he couldn’t sleep or eat and confessed to the homicide.

Nonetheless, after his conviction, he didn’t obtain the utmost attainable sentence of life in jail as a result of the girlfriend had been relocated outdoors the Virgin Islands’ vary of subpoena energy, in accordance with the St. John Tradewinds newspaper.

“Multiple particular person has died down there in the previous few years, and the police power at all times says it is underneath investigation,” mentioned Dr. Robert Oldham, whose good friend Ed Netherland, a Nashville insurance coverage govt, was crushed to dying in a waterfront house invasion theft in 2014. “Nevertheless it would not look to be prefer it’s a lot investigation.”

Ed Netherland, a Tennessee insurance coverage entrepreneur, was 60 years previous in 2014 when somebody broke into the waterfront house the place he was staying on St. Thomas and beat him to dying.  (Ed Netherland/Fb)

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Netherland’s household didn’t pursue a non-public investigation as different victims’ households have accomplished, Oldham mentioned, and the homicide stays unsolved.

The household of Jamie Cockayne, the 21-year-old Pennsylvania man stabbed and crushed to dying on St. John after a bar battle in 2007, spent tens of 1000’s of {dollars} out of pocket on non-public investigators and attorneys to deliver the suspects to justice.

Mekel Blash pleaded responsible in 2019 to the 2014 homicide of New Jersey resident Jimmy Malfetti throughout a house invasion theft. (Virgin Islands Police Division)

Even then, they did half of their sentences, made parole and acquired in additional hassle. One, Jahlil Ward, was shot and killed in a drive-by shortly after his launch. Years earlier, Ward had been shot in one other incident involving Mekel Blash – who himself could be convicted in 2019 of stabbing New Jersey native Jimmy Malfetti to dying in a house invasion theft 5 years earlier.

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A view of Little St. James Island, within the U. S. Virgin Islands, a property owned by Jeffrey Epstein. (AP)

Like Cockayne’s household, Malfetti’s employed non-public investigators and coated journey prices till Blash lastly took a plea deal, admitting to second-degree homicide as prosecutors dropped 9 different costs.

One other man convicted in Cockayne’s dying, Georgia native Kamal “Six Pack” Thomas, acquired out of jail and went on so far former U.S. swim champ Jamie Cail, in accordance with quite a few sources on the islands and within the U.S. The 42-year-old was initially from New Hampshire and died in late February.

Kamal “Six Pack” Thomas proven in a 2007 reserving picture after his arrest in reference to the beating dying of 21-year-old Jamie Cockayne. First-degree homicide costs have been dismissed, and Thomas was in the end convicted of assault and weapons costs, court docket information present. Authorities on the Florida jail the place he served a part of his sentence and within the U.S. Virgin Islands haven’t responded to repeated requests for a more moderen mug shot. (Virgin Islands Police Division)

Island police and prosecutors have declined to disclose her trigger and method of dying and haven’t publicly recognized Thomas as the person who discovered her. With out naming him, they mentioned Cail’s boyfriend instructed them he got here house from a bar on Feb. 21, discovered her lifeless and drove her to a clinic the place medical workers couldn’t revive her.

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Police introduced a prison investigation into the matter however have launched few updates. Investigators are asking anybody with info on the case to contact detectives, name 911 or attain out to Crime Stoppers V.I. at 1 (800) 222-TIPS.

Cail’s dying got here proper earlier than the American school spring break season, a profitable time of 12 months for the islands, in a territory that depends closely on tourism and help from the mainland. So did the slaying of Kathryn Almony, a 57-year-old St. Croix girl who police say was killed by her boyfriend final week.

Randall Yates, a 66-year-old from St. Croix, is charged with first-degree homicide of his girlfriend Kathryn Almony, who was discovered lifeless final week. (Virgin Islands Police Division)

On Thursday, the VIPD introduced a first-degree homicide cost in opposition to a 66-year-old St. Croix resident named Randall Yates, who police say instructed 911 he discovered Almony unconscious within the lavatory final week.

The USVI tourism commissioner, Robert Boschulte, didn’t reply to a number of calls or emails within the wake of Cail’s dying.

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Lastly, somebody from his workplace instructed Fox Information Digital that, “At the moment, we aren’t capable of touch upon an ongoing investigation.”

“What’s the profit that U.S. residents obtain from sending tens of millions of {dollars} to the U.S. Virgin Islands?” Jeanie Cockayne, Jamie Cockayne’s mom, just lately contemplated. “They’re similar to a child that’s by no means been weaned. They do nothing for america.”

Jeffrey Epstein’s former house on the island of Little St. James within the U.S. Virgin Islands. (Emily Michot/Miami Herald/Tribune Information Service by way of Getty Photos)

Based on USASpending.gov, the U.S. Virgin Islands obtained $1.4 billion from the federal government final 12 months. That’s greater than 1 / 4 of the territory’s GDP, which is round $4.2 billion, in accordance with the World Financial institution.

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Whereas the embattled Virgin Islands Police Division has jurisdiction over native offenses, the FBI urges anybody who believes they’re a witness or sufferer to a federal crime to name them straight at 1-800-CALL-FBI or to name the native area workplace in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Moreover, the U.S. Coast Guard says anybody who wants assist in U.S. waters ought to attain out over VHF radio on channel 16 with their GPS location and the character of their emergency.