CHRISTIANSTED — A St. Croix man has been sentenced to just over one year in prison for one count of aiding and abetting possession of a firearm by a person under indictment, authorities said
A’keem Stanley, 27, of Golden Grove, appeared before Judge Wilma Lewis in U.S. District Court and gave Stanley 14 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, a $1,000 fine, and a $100 special assessment, U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert said.
According to court documents, on November 4, 2016, Ameade Williams was charged by information with felony offenses in the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands. On May 23, 2018, the Superior Court entered an order releasing Williams into the custody of A’keem Stanley and required that they reside at Frederiksted, St. Croix residence. On May 25, 2018, Stanley signed a document acknowledging his consent and obligation to monitor Williams’ compliance with his terms of release as a third-party custodian.
During a search of the Frederiksted residence on September 11, 2018, while the charges were still pending against Williams, police seized a Kel-Tech pistol from the living room and a Taurus 9mm pistol in the bedroom where Stanley was located. The Kel-Tech firearm contained a magazine with 29 live rounds of ammunition. According to court documents, Williams, who was present, stated that the firearms belonged to him and that other persons had nothing to with the firearms.
During a post arrest interview, Stanley told police that he had made the arrangements to acquire possession of the Frederiksted residence where he and Williams resided and that he observed the firearms being brought into the residence two weeks earlier. However, Stanley did not report Williams’ possession of the firearm to appropriate officials, thus permitting Williams’ possession to remain undetected by law enforcement. Both firearms were manufactured outside of the United States Virgin Islands.
The Virgin Islands Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel H. Huston prosecuted the 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.