The Virgin Islands Department of Justice filed an emergency motion to postpone a series of parole hearings scheduled to start Monday, asking the Superior Court to rule whether a recent statute allowing the hearings unconstitutionally alters judicially imposed sentences.
The Justice Department did not state which law it objected to but said it allowed prisoners previously deemed ineligible for parole under court-imposed sentences to seek early release. This, they argued, violated the separation of powers and intruded on both judicial authority and executive powers conferred under the Revised Organic Act of 1954, the Virgin Islands’ governing document.
In January 2024, Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. signed into law the Legislature’s Bill 35-0045, amending existing parole laws to allow for release considerations for medical reasons and for people over 65 who had been given sentences without the possibility of parole.
Some of the prisoners the new law could affect include four of the Virgin Islands’ most notorious. Warren Emmanuel Ballentine and Beaumont Gereau were 23, and Meral Smith just 22 when their bungled golf course robbery left eight dead and as many as eight wounded in 1972. After conviction, they were ordered to serve eight consecutive life sentences plus 90 years. Now well into their 70s, the parole board was prepared to hear their case for release June 7.
The parole board was also going to consider early release of former school teacher Tydel John, who was 64 when convicted in 2014 of sexually assaulting multiple children. John was 57 when first arrested in 2007. For two years, more charges were added as additional victims came forward.
In April 2014, a 26-year-old Eugene Roberts and four others ambushed a St. Croix nightclub patron in a hail of gunfire that killed 32-year-old Matthew Vernege Jr. and wounded an off-duty Virgin Islands Police officer. He was convicted of murder, attempted murder, and related gun crimes, according to court records.
On Thursday, the Source published accounts of 16 other criminals listed for potential parole in June. Those men, and the following prisoners, do not appear to be affected by the geriatric parole law. However, the Virgin Islands Department of Justice also said in its media release that the Virgin Islands Parole Board lacked the required number of members for a legal quorum.
“Proceeding with hearings under such circumstances would not only be unlawful, but also further erode public confidence in the rule of law,” Chief Deputy Attorney General Ian Clement wrote.
If the board were to proceed, they would consider the following prisoners in June:
In December 2022, police in St. Thomas found Lee Victoria with two pistols, ammunition, and cannabis bagged for sale. He pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized possession of a firearm, avoiding the more serious possession of firearms with obliterated serial numbers charges that carried minimum 15-year sentences without possibility of parole, according to court records.
Shortly after midnight Feb. 6, 2024, police found Jimmar Hodge and another man sitting in a car with open doors on Charlotte Amalie’s Strand Gade rolling and smoking joints. In two backpacks in the car, they found a pistol with an obliterated serial number, ammunition, several mason jars filled with marijuana, and a bag of heroin, according to court records. Charges included possession of drug paraphernalia within 1,000 feet of a school.
Hodge pleaded guilty to possession of ammunition.
In May 2010, Hodge was arrested and charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm after a concerned citizen told police Hodge was in the Michael J. Kirwan Terrace housing community and had a gun. He was arrested again in 2011 on domestic violence charges for assaulting his girlfriend, police said. At a residence in the Estate Bovoni housing community, Hodge and the woman were arguing when he punched her several times in the face, breaking her jaw and fracturing her nose and cheek, police said.
In 2007, Chris Carty fatally stabbed a man and wounded another in separate incidents near Lionel Roberts Stadium. Glenn Blyden was playing dominoes when a 27-year-old Carty instigated a fight, according to police reports at the time. Carty produced a knife from his waistband and plunged it into Blyden’s neck, killing him. The wounded man, an Ital food vendor, was stabbed with a pair of scissors in the left eye. The wound required 20 stitches.
Mateo Ramon was jailed in December 2012 after a 2015 assault conviction — first at a youth correctional facility, then in adult prisons, according to court records. Ramon had originally been charged with burglary and murder in addition to assault charges. He was rearrested for parole violation, but court records were not clear on when.
In 2022, Miguel Encarnacion was found guilty of third-degree assault and reckless endangerment but not guilty of use of a weapon and destruction of property. Encarnacion was released before sentencing to “get his affairs in order,” according to court records, but failed to report to the Bureau of Corrections that day. A warrant was issued for his arrest. In October, Encarnacion — still on the run — was sentenced to five years in prison. More than a year later, in November 2023, he surrendered to police in St. Thomas.
In 2023, Gregory Benson Luis Jr. was sentenced to two years in prison — with all but six months suspended — for third degree assault, avoiding more serious assault and weapons charges through a plea deal. Luis was also to undergo two years supervised probation. In January 2025, the court revoked his release, finding he had failed to comply with key elements of his probation: failing to complete an anger management program, failing to report to the Division of Mental Health, Alcoholism and Drug Dependency Services for a substance abuse evaluation, failing to enroll in and regularly attend any substance abuse education or treatment program, and failure to pay the $500 administrative probation fee and $75 court costs.
The parole board will consider Luis’ release June 10.
Rashad Creque, 28, went on a rampage in 2020, according to court records. In May, he was arrested after screaming and firing shots from his licensed pistol outside an Anna’s Retreat ballpark near his grandmother’s house. He then barricaded himself in the bathroom of a nearby home when police arrived. Officers eventually kicked in the door and found Creque in the shower attempting to wash gunshot residue off his hands, police said.
In October 2020, Creque was driving a Viya bucket truck in St. John when he started a verbal dispute with two men in a cement company truck. The argument continued across Cruz Bay and ended with Creque shooting at the other men, according to court records. The incident stretched on for nearly two hours before police found the bucket truck abandoned on Bordeaux Mountain Road, six and a half miles east of Cruz Bay and south of Centerline Road. Inside, police found two handguns and ammunition. Police also found several pieces of identification bearing Creque’s name.
Viya, Crique’s then-employer, said he didn’t have permission to be using the truck at the time.
He was charged with unauthorized possession of a firearm in a vehicle, reckless endangerment, assault and battery, and related offenses.
Fresh from jail in February 2024, Creque was pulled over for running a stoplight in St. Thomas. In his trousers, police found a loaded handgun. The parole board will consider his release June 10.
