By By SUZANNE CARLSON Daily News Staff

Copyright virginislandsdailynews

The ongoing staff shortage at the V.I. Department of Justice has left the few remaining prosecutors scrambling to cover an attempted murder case that has been pending for more than four years, according to V.I. Superior Court records.

The defendant, Ian Benjamin Jr., was arrested in June 2021, and charged in connection with a drive-by shooting that occurred in the area of Marley Homes on Dec. 22, 2020.

Benjamin is scheduled to go to trial on Sept. 29, but the acting deputy attorney general for St. Croix, Patricia Lynn Pryor, filed a motion to continue the case on Friday.

Pryor informed the court that the attorney previously assigned to the case has resigned, and “the case has not yet been reassigned or prepared for jury trial.”

The St. Croix criminal division currently only has five attorneys, including Robert Pickett, who “has a conflict and cannot handle this matter,” according to the motion. “In addition, he will be in trial the three preceding weeks on murder and sex offenses.”

Attorney Jasmine Griffin will be out of the territory on pre-approved leave, attorney Kippy Roberson will be in a jury trial in a different court on the same date, attorney Chad Mitchell has other court assignments, and Pryor said she is unable to try a case due to medical restrictions.

“There are currently no other attorneys in the criminal division in St. Croix,” according to the motion.

That means the St. Croix criminal division has lost two attorneys since June, when V.I. Attorney General Gordon Rhea highlighted the department’s chronic understaffing during his budget testimony to the Legislature, and said the department “remains seriously deficient” in filling vacancies.

There were seven prosecutors on staff on St. Croix at the time, and Rhea said the criminal divisions in both districts each need four more prosecutors and additional staff “to handle their massive caseloads and cover the court rooms.”

The understaffing problems “not only impact our attorneys’ ability to perform their work but also leaves them exhausted and stressed, undermines their morale, and risks inducing them to leave,” Rhea added.

He lauded attorneys’ efforts to secure lengthy prison sentences for major offenders, but emphasized that “the volume of work has been tremendous” and more staff are desperately needed.

According to Friday’s motion by Pryor, the situation has become so dire that “there is not an attorney available to properly prepare for and try the case in the office of the Attorney General as currently scheduled.”

In addition, Pryor noted that the case “in large part, relies on toolmarks analysis matching shell casings from the scene of the shooting to a gun found in the Defendant’s possession during a search warrant execution.”

The original toolmarks examiner Reynold DeSouza has since died, and prosecutors “have arranged for a replacement examiner to reperform the analysis,” Pryor wrote. “While the analysis should be completed soon, it is unknown if it can be completed before trial, or if it would provide sufficient notice to the Defendant.”

The case has been pending for more than four years, but Pryor said prosecutors need more time.

“The People are not asking for a lengthy delay – only long enough to allow the People to reassign the case to an attorney who is available on the future trial date and can prepare the case adequately for trial,” Pryor wrote.

“This case has now been pending for several years, and any further delay would be unfortunate; however, unfortunate does not equal prejudice. There have been many developments in this matter over the years that led to many of the delays,” she added.

Benjamin currently has four pending criminal cases — three of which are related to a .40 caliber handgun that police said they seized from Benjamin’s home during a search on April 6, 2021. He was also arrested in 2023 while behind bars awaiting trial, and is charged with stabbing a fellow detainee.

According to court records, police said DeSouza’s forensic firearm analysis linked a .40 caliber spent casing recovered at the scene of Kevin Jerome’s murder on Feb. 26, 2021, to shell casings found at the Marley Homes shooting in December 2020.

Police said Benjamin was identified as a shooter in the Marley Homes incident, and investigators believe he fired the pistol used to kill Jerome in 2020, according to court records.

Police obtained a warrant to search Benjamin’s home in April 2021, and charged him with illegal firearm possession after he admitted to owning a pistol found inside, according to court records.

But defense attorney Eugenio W.A. Géigel-Simounet successfully argued that police did not have probable cause for the search, and Senior Sitting Judge Jomo Meade ruled in October that prosecutors may not use the seized gun as evidence.

Prosecutors are appealing that suppression order to the V.I. Supreme Court, and Pickett argued in a court filing in the gun possession case that Benjamin “is extremely dangerous,” and there could be “grave cost to the public” if they cannot present the gun as evidence at trial.

Pickett said Benjamin has twice admitted to possessing the gun, which “links him to the murder of Kevin Jerome and the drive-by shooting at Marley Homes. If evidence of the search warrant is suppressed, the gun will be lost, and this case could not proceed to trial. Further, the murder and attempted murder cases would be seriously harmed.”

The appeal is still pending, and a judge has not yet ruled on Pryor’s motion to delay the attempted murder case, according to publicly available court records filed as of late Tuesday.

Jury selection in the murder trial is set to begin in April.