CHRISTIANSTED — After a six-day trial, a federal jury today found Delroy Thomas, Jr., 28, of St. Croix, guilty of murder for hire, attempted murder and attempted retaliation against a witness, United States Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert said.
According to the evidence presented at trial, between March 9, 2015 to March 11, 2015, Thomas made a series of telephone calls, while in Golden Grove Adult Correctional Facility, to another inmate.
Thomas solicited the inmate’s assistance to eliminate two witnesses in his pending Superior Court case.
Thomas describe the location of the witnesses’ residence to the inmate and texted their photographs to him.
He told the inmate he wanted them “off”, he was dead serious, he would get the gun, this was eight months of thinking and that there were no ifs, ands, buts or changing of mind. Thomas discussed the price for the planned “hit” and directed a female to place $500.00 into a particular vehicle, intending for it would serve as a down payment.
He also admitted that if the inmate did not carry out the hit he would get someone else. Unbeknownst to Thomas, the inmate was a confidential informant who was working for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
The DEA informant proceeded to record Thomas’ phone calls, which were played for the jury during the trial.
One of the witnesses at trial identified Thomas’s voice on the recorded phone calls.
Following his arrest, Thomas told agents that he may have discussed eliminating witnesses in his case with other inmates when he was angry, but he denied that he had participated in any murder for hire plot.
At his trial, Thomas testified that he did make the recorded statements but that he was merely “going along” with a scheme concocted by the inmate/informant who had threatened him into participating in the calls.
Thomas testified that the calls were rehearsed and he simply followed the plan. The government, however, presented evidence of text messages Thomas sent to other individuals, before the phone calls, stating that he was planning a massacre, and that if the February authorities did not let him out of prison, he would put a “hit” on a female victim and her mother.
On March 12, 2015, Bureau of Corrections officers searched Thomas’ prison cell and seized three cellular telephones and a knife from a case that was accessible from his cell.
Thomas faces up to 10 years in prison for the murder for hire conviction plus a maximum fine of $250,000; up to twenty-five years of incarceration for the attempted murder conviction; and up to five years for the attempted retaliation against a witness conviction plus a maximum fine of $1,000.00.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD) and the Gang Intelligence Search Team of the V.I. Bureau of Corrections.
It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alphonso G. Andrews, Jr. and Rhonda Williams-Henry.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-vi/pr/federal-jury-convicts-st-croix-man-murder-hire