CHRISTIANSTED — A St. Croix man was sentenced to home confinement, probation and fines for having a gun in a school zone.
Jimmar A. Payne, 31, was given four years probation, including 90 days of home confinement, a fine of $8,000, and a special assessment of $25, following his guilty plea to possession of a firearm in a school zone, U.S. Attorney Delia L. Smith said.
According to court documents, on January 29, 2022, a Virgin Islands Police Department officer stopped Payne’s vehicle on the Melvin Evans Highway in the vicinity of the Ricardo Richards Elementary School for failure to display a visible rear license plate.
The officer then observed a handgun protruding from under Payne’s driver’s seat. Payne did not have a license to possess the firearm.
Payne was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Wilma A. Lewis.
The Virgin Islands Police Department and High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Task Force investigated the case. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel H. Huston.
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.