CHARLOTTE AMALIE — A couple who came to St. Thomas from the mainland on a one-way ticket have both been charged with squatting in and damaging a vacant apartment on St. Thomas and each have active warrants for their arrest in Florida, authorities said.
Venessa Blanco and DePaul Hendrix, also known as Jamil Ahmad Bryant-Perry, were arrested and charged with third-degree burglary, unlawful entry, and destruction of property.
Blanco and Hendrix were each jailed on $25,000 bond and appeared in court together via video conference for their advice-of-rights hearing remotely.
Police said they responded to a report by a property owner, who said he’d gotten a complaint of garbage piling up outside a vacant apartment. The owner entered and found furniture in disarray, and two people sleeping on the floor of a bedroom.
The landlord immediately left and called 911, and officers responded and found the couple, who said they’d pried open a window and taken shelter in the apartment, according to a sworn police affidavit.
An officer noted that there was “a couch inside of the bedroom with slashes and a broken mirror and a broken bedroom closet door.”
Police also said that they later found a wallet in the apartment with a different driver’s license from the one Hendrix had presented to officers, and officials said in court that it’s unclear who he really is.
“He has 10 aliases that are reported,” said Assistant Virgin Islands Attorney General Brenda Scales.
Scales began to recount his criminal history in California, North Carolina, and Florida before Magistrate Judge Carolyn Hermon-Percell cut her off in the interests of time: “Let’s just say it’s extensive,” Hermon-Percell said.
“Extensive, your honor, and dangerous. In 2012 he’d already progressed to strong-armed robbery, but in the last couple of years it’s mainly drugs,” Scales said. “He has 22 arrests and/or convictions, so he is a danger, he is a risk of flight.”
Territorial Public Defender Mary Ann Matney said the couple are engaged and are self-employed as fashion designers. They both have children on the mainland, and had traveled to the Virgin Islands on a one-way ticket two weeks ago to consider relocating permanently, she said.
Matney said Hendrix is 29 years old, but “I have him as 31, at a minimum,” the judge said.
Scales said Blanco and Hendrix each have warrants for their arrest, but the state of Florida is not seeking extradition — so they’re currently the Virgin Islands government’s responsibility.
Percell reduced Blanco’s bail to $5,000 and said she may be released after posting $500 cash, but she must surrender her Florida driver’s license.
Scales asked that Hendrix be held until police can run his fingerprints and “find out who he really is.”
The judge agreed. She ordered the two driver’s licenses found in his possession to be seized for further investigation, and maintained his bail at $25,000 cash.