John McCarthy
LAKELAND — Two suspects wanted for murder in St. Croix were apprehended by Florida police deputies in Lakeland on Thursday, authorities said.
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, 30-year-old Jonathan Rivera and his girlfriend, 28-year-old N’zinger Williams, are wanted in the U.S. Virgin Islands for the murder of a 28-year-old St. Croix man back in June.
Deputies responded to a home on the 100 block of Arizona Avenue in Lakeland just after 5 p.m. and arrested Rivera and Williams.
“They are both from the Virgin Islands and came here in late June apparently thinking Polk County would be a good place to flee to,” Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement. “They were obviously wrong.”
The sheriff’s office did not provide details on how investigators located the pair.
The Virgin Islands Police Department St. Croix District is charging Jonathan Rivera with first-degree murder, assault, unauthorized possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence, reckless endangerment, and unauthorized possession of ammunition.
N’zinger Williams is charged with first-degree murder and accessory after-the-fact.
Both Rivera and Williams were taken to the Polk County Jail to await extradition to the Virgin Islands, the sheriff’s office said.
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