KINGSHILL — A St. Croix man already awaiting trial in connection with a drive-by shooting and a prison stabbing is now charged with the 2021 murder of Kevin Jerome, Superior Court records show.
Ian Benjamin Jr., 21, appeared in court recently and was ordered released to a third-party custodian after signing an unsecured $1 million bond.
Benjamin is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree and third-degree assault, unauthorized possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, possession of ammunition, and reckless endangerment.
VIPD mug shot of Ian Benjamin Jr., 21, on St. Croix.
According to charging documents, Benjamin is accused of shooting Jerome to death on Feb. 26, 2021.
Virgin Islands Police said at the time that officers responded to a report of shots fired at 9:57 a.m. on Main Street in William’s Delight, and found 30-year-old Jerome dead from a gunshot wound to the head.
Benjamin was arrested on April 9, 2021, and charged with carrying a firearm openly or concealed, after police executed a search warrant at his home on Queen Street in Frederiksted and found an unlicensed firearm.
He was arrested again on June 25, 2021, and charged with attempted murder in connection with a December 22, 2020, drive-by shooting in the area of Marley Homes.
Benjamin was shot during the incident, and another man, Charles Frazer Jr., was arrested after dropping Benjamin off at the Juan F. Luis Hospital, where doctors removed a bullet from his chest, according to court records.
Frazer had previously been charged with attempted murder after shooting at police executing a search warrant of his home on March 19, 2021. In an agreement that resolved both cases, Frazer pleaded guilty to unauthorized possession of a firearm and was sentenced to 10 years in prison on April 26, according to court records.
While Benjamin was jailed awaiting trial in both the gun possession and drive-by shooting cases, he was arrested again on October 1, along with Heriberto Perez and charged with stabbing another detainee at the John A. Bell Adult Correctional Facility.
The stabbing occurred on the morning of September 30, and a probable cause fact sheet filed by Bureau of Corrections Lt. Jonathan Santiago described a chaotic scene.
Santiago was at home on his day off when he received a call at 9:10 a.m. about the stabbing, and he arrived at the prison at 9:54 a.m. When he entered the unit, “I saw that all detainees were still out and not secured,” and Santiago ordered officers to lock down all detainees, according to the fact sheet.
Surveillance video showed that Benjamin got into an argument with the victim, and repeatedly stabbed him with an 18-inch steel rod that was sharpened into a pointed shank, with a handle made of plastic wrap and a blue glove, according to the fact sheet.
At one point, Benjamin stabbed himself in the left wrist, and Perez pulled the shank out of Benjamin’s wrist and used it to stab the victim in the chest, and continued punching the victim until other detainees broke up the fight, according to the fact sheet.
Benjamin was charged with first-degree assault and related crimes, and he was released from jail and ordered to live with a third-party custodian in December.
On February. 21, Benjamin requested permission to secure employment, which Assistant Virgin Islands Attorney General Robert Pickett opposed in a filing on March 1.
“The defendant stabbed a man in prison while he was awaiting trial on an attempted murder involving a drive-by shooting and a separate gun charge. He has demonstrated himself to be an ongoing threat to the community, 24-hour house arrest is a minimum necessary condition to protect the community,” Pickett wrote.
Unrelated to Benjamin’s pending criminal charges, Benjamin’s father, 38-year-old Virgin Islands Army National Guard Sgt. Ian Benjamin Sr., was shot to death on March 2, 2021, at his home in Estate Carlton.
A woman named Ta’Jhanique Cumberbatch was arrested just over a week after Benjamin Sr. was killed, and is facing several charges, including first-degree murder.
A man, Sharif Matthew, was arrested by warrant in September 2021, and charged with first-degree murder and discharging or aiming a firearm, and is accused of firing the fatal shots, according to an affidavit filed by Virgin Islands Police.
Each person has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and a status conference took place in March.