A 19-year-old gunman in an April 2006 shoot-out in Cruz Bay was sentenced to 15 years in jail last week before V.I. Superior Court Judge Michael Dunston, according to published reports.
Denzil Stevens of Estate Carolina was arrested for pulling the trigger in an April 8, 2006, Cruz Bay drive-by shooting in front of Meada’s Plaza in which one man was critically wounded.
Stevens was found guilty in September 2007 of first-degree attempted murder, first degree assault, illegal possession of ammunition and the use of an unlicensed weapon during the crimes.
The assault and related weapons offenses were combined with the attempted murder charges, according to a report in the Virgin Islands Daily News.
Dunston handed down two 15-year consecutive sentences for the attempted murder and related weapons charges and a one-year concurrent sentence for the ammunition charge, according to the report.
Mekel Blash, 23, of Estate Rendezvous and a 16-year-old Estate Hard Labor boy were arrested along with Stevens in relation to the drive-by shooting.
Blash was charged with conspiracy to commit a first-degree assault, aiding and abetting, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and being an accessory after the fact. The 16-year-old faces charges of conspiracy to commit a first-degree assault and being an accessory after the fact.
While Blash’s trial has not occurred yet, it was unclear as of press time whether the teenage boy stood trial.
The April 8, 2006, drive-by shooting in front of Meada’s Plaza was allegedly retaliation for a shooting which occurred the previous night in front of the old Texaco gas station.
Although no one was arrested in the April 7, 2006, shooting in which a 16-year-old boy was wounded in the hand, V.I. Police Department officials thought the Meada’s drive-by shooting involved the same men.
Shots continued to ring out that April 2006 weekend when another drive-by occurred outside a shanty in Estate Lower Carolina in Coral Bay. No arrests were made in that incident either.
