CHARLOTTE AMALIE — United States Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert announced today that a federal jury on St. Thomas convicted 29-year-old Leroy Henry, Jr. yesterday of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was acquitted of a second offense of being a felon in possession of ammunition.
At the conclusion of the trial, Henry was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, pending his sentencing.
According to evidence presented at trial, an anonymous Crime Stoppers tip stated that Leroy Henry, Jr., a convicted felon, possessed a hidden compartment in his blue Infiniti, where he maintained an unregistered firearm that he planned to use to exact revenge on his brother’s murderer.
This tip led to the FBI executing a search warrant on January 14, 2020. Agents searched Leroy Henry, Jr.’s car and, in a hidden compartment underneath his center console cupholders, located a fully loaded .23 Glock pistol, along with two magazines, one of which was extended.
During a subsequent interview, Leroy Henry, Jr. acknowledged to the agents that he had previously obtained it from a friend.
DNA samples collected from the gun were compared to a sample of Henry’s DNA. An FBI forensic examiner testified at the trial that the DNA analysis revealed that it was 78 septillion times more likely that Henry’s DNA was present on the Glock confiscated from his vehicle.
After a routine traffic stop on St. Thomas in June of 2009, Henry was one of three men charged with four counts of unauthorized possession of a firearm and other charges, according to police records.
The Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) investigated the current case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Meredith J. Edwards and George Andrew Massucco-LaTaif are prosecuting the current case.
This case is part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods Initiative. Project Safe Neighborhoods is a nationwide initiative that brings together federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and community leaders to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in a community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them.
For more information on the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods, please see:
https://www.justice.gov/psn