Allan, it's in the Source http://www.onepaper.com/stthomasvi/?v=d&i=&s=News:Local&p=1176614112

Aug. 7, 2007 -- Another person has been arrested in the St. John murder of 21-year-old Jamie Cockayne: Ryan Meade, 31, of St. John, was charged with witness intimidation, V.I. Police Commissioner James McCall announced Tuesday.
Cockayne, who had recently moved to St. John, was stabbed to death some time after midnight on June 19 in downtown Cruz Bay. Police arrested 18-year-old Kamal "Six Pack" Thomas Friday, charging him with first-degree murder, first-degree assault and using a dangerous weapon during the commission of a crime of violence.
Thomas went before V.I. Superior Court Judge Leon Kendall Monday for an advice-of-rights hearing. Kendall said a pre-trial detention hearing would be scheduled within the next three days. Meantime, Thomas is being held at the Golden Grove Correctional Facility on St. Croix.

McCall announced the second arrest during a Tuesday press conference called to answer media questions about the high-profile case. Meade went before Kendall Tuesday morning and was released to his parents' custody on an unsecured $10,000 surety bond. Meade's role was peripheral to the case; he is not being accused in the murder, McCall said.
Attending the conference in addition to local media were Cockayne's parents, Jeanie and Bill, along with their surviving son, Jeff. The Cockaynes have maintained to the national media that V.I. police are not updating them on information about their son's death.
Under questioning about the release of information, McCall was clear on police policy. He said the Police Department does not release information that might impede an ongoing investigation. Asked about stateside police procedures, McCall -- who has an extensive investigative stateside background -- said that is the procedure on the mainland.
"I know this is traumatic,” McCall said. “I can imagine the agony the parents must be going through, and we will make information available as we can. The police and the Attorney General have kept in regular communication (with the Cockaynes), and we will continue to do that. Our goal in this case -- in any case -- is to obtain justice for the victim, and to prosecute the criminals."
The parents, in nationally televised reports, have said they want federal investigators on the case. McCall said Tuesday federal investigators have been on the case since its inception.
"Our policy is to alert federal officials, the FBI, the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms), the Safe Street Task Force, the Justice Department, ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement), local and U.S. marshals’ offices, the lottery office, whatever we need."
He added, "We will utilize the other agencies. However, the final decision is always the police department."
McCall announced that police have identified another person of interest, Anselmo Boston. He did not elaborate further.
Court documents show Meade, the second person arrested, has an extensive rap sheet. He has been arrested 13 times since 1998 on charges ranging from aggravated assault and battery, robbery, inciting a riot, possible controlled substances, cocaine and marijuana to a couple of simple assaults and disturbing the peace. In 1996, he was also arrested for witness intimidation.
According to the document, Meade has never served time. The court dispositions shows time and again: “dismissed,” “no known disposition” or “no prosecution.” He once was fined $50 and given 30 days in jail, with all but time served suspended. How much time he had served is not noted.
In this case, Meade stands accused of threatening a person who, on July 31, provided information to the police on the murder in Cruz Bay, according to the arresting document. Thomas is also accused of threatening the same person, a charge that will be considered at his next hearing.
After the press briefing, the Cockaynes still contended that they were not being informed of progress in the investigation. "McCall said he would call us when they had an arrest," Jeanie Cockayne said.
"We have information from our private investigator that we wanted to turn over to the police today, but we were told it has to be taken to the Attorney General,” Bill Cockayne said.
Speaking later, McCall confirmed the Attorney General’s involvement.
"That's right," McCall said. “The case is in the prosecutorial stage right now, and information should be turned over to the AG's office, the Justice Department."
During the press conference, McCall said progress is being made on two other high-profile homicide cases on St. Thomas, those of Trevor Joseph and Alvin Morton. "We are pursuing several leads, and as I am able to share information, I will make it public. There have been developments."
Joseph was shot and killed in an attempted robbery outside the lobby of Emerald Bay Beach Resort as he was servicing an automated teller machine. (See “ATM Company Offering $10,000 Reward in Joseph Murder.”)
The body of Morton, an employee of the Office of the Governor, was found July 28 in the trunk of a car alongside Peterborg Road. He had been shot multiple times. (See “Another Homicide Rocks St. Thomas.”)

"Court documents show Meade, the second person arrested, has an extensive rap sheet. He has been arrested 13 times since 1998 on charges ranging from aggravated assault and battery, robbery, inciting a riot, possible controlled substances, cocaine and marijuana to a couple of simple assaults and disturbing the peace. In 1996, he was also arrested for witness intimidation.
According to the document, Meade has never served time. The court dispositions shows time and again: “dismissed,” “no known disposition” or “no prosecution.” He once was fined $50 and given 30 days in jail, with all but time served suspended. How much time he had served is not noted. "

Phew! Never served any time? Never on parolle? Nobody keeping track of him? And, from this article, witness intimidation is not new to him. I mean, just reading this, doesn't he sound like someobody that needs some corrective measure?

Ok, so this might show us that the police are doing their job - but something in the system is failing. Where is it?

What's failing is some degree of judicial oversight. As posted earlier, concerns have been documented regarding the lenient nature of Judge Kendall with regard to violent offenders. The two people arrested so far in this case have both appeared before Judge Kendall. And while I have not see this independently verified, there are reports on other message boards that he once again pushed to have both me released at minimal or no bail.

Again, we are seeing on St. John the same societal and judicial system ills that plague many areas in the US. We have to keep reminding ourselves that while we, as occasional visitors to the VI, might view this part of the world as paradise, it suffers from the same sorts of problems that we hope to leave behind in our own towns and cities when we go on vacation.

I wonder if this meade guy is the person who caused the riot while I was down there. Everyone in STJ was out watching the fued.

I just read where Senator Liston Davis played the race card on this issue. Great way to make it worse!! Sheesh.

"Sen. Liston Davis kicked off the questioning on the Fox News story by noting that only when a white person is murdered in the Virgin Islands does the national media pay attention."

Could someone please explain why Kendall is still on the bench?

As posted by Bluwater:
"Sen. Liston Davis kicked off the questioning on the Fox News story by noting that only when a white person is murdered in the Virgin Islands does the national media pay attention."

From the above comment it is a shame you do not have to have a high level of intelligence to be a VI Senator. It is on the same stupid level as Don Imus and his very shameful remark!

Perhaps this is not the proper place to post this, but I occasionally read the daily News online and came across the Cockayne murder story yesterday. I was kind of surprised by the media attention this one murder has caused as it seems obvious to anyone who reads the Daily News that murder is a common occurrence in these islands. With a quick search for "murder in the U.S.V.I." I found this forum. I first moved to St. Thomas in 1978 and indeed felt safe there at that time. By 1981 the situation had changed dramatically. I realize I'm going back 25 years but I do want to make a point; As a licensed yacht captain from 1979 to the present I have had occasion to visit St. Thomas many times since I left there because of the crime situation in 1984. I was there twice last year for about 4 days at a time. Crown Bay Marina is where we tie up and I always tell the crew to always be aware of their surroundings and NEVER go out at night. We STAY at Crown Bay.

I have several friends down there who seem to like it but they know full well that it is a dangerous place and act accordingly. In my years of living and visiting there I have encountered the brutal rape of a good friend (no arrests) the shooting of a good friend (a bartender at Sib's. She was left paralyzed for the 11 bucks they stole.) No arrests. The rape of a friend's wife (she was left nude and tied up in here driveway for her husband to find. No arrrests. The robbery at knife point of a good friend in Frenchtown. I personally found a burglar under my bed at Bluebeard's Castle. And what about the cruise ship passengers being assaulted and robbed? People beaten to within an inch of their lives.

St Croix...don't get me started...I've owned property there since 1986. And now (again) St. John. The U.S.V.I. is a very dangerous place. Anyone who says it's the same everywhere is naive. St. Thomas is 12 miles long and 3 miles wide; what areas are you supposed to avoid to stay safe. Certainly not the hotels or resorts. How about the beaches? How many rapes and murders on the beaches over the years?

Sure, I'm only one guy. But when I hear about another murder, rape or robbery against ANYONE...black or white in these islands it starts the whole thing up again. Do you think anyone has forgotten Fountain Valley?! And they probably aren't aware the Gov. Farrelly pardoned the last brother still in jail for it. All you have to do is read the paper to hear about the latest violence. I would never let anyone I know vacation in those islands unless it was on a yacht; and even then, be very careful ashore.

OK...so maybe I'm wrong. Does it matter? These incidents breed fear and that's all it takes to bring down the tourist trade. When that happens crime goes up. Education seems to me to be the only solution. It's ignorance that's destroying these islands.

Sincerely,
Khaos

Khaos is right on the money. It's amazing to me that the crime rate hasn't been in the media sooner. What will it take to stop the crime on st. thomas? Or will everyone just continue to pretend it isn't a problem until st. thomas turns into st. croix and the cruise ships stop coming?

The islands of the USVI are quite different from one another. St Thomas and St Croix have always had a reputation of being much less safe than St John. A big part of this incident's impact is that it occurred on STJ, not on STT or STX.

Here on the mainland, the suburban murder is always a significant story while often the inner city murder is barely noted. A murder on STJ is no more tragic than one on STT or STX, but is more noteworthy because they are so rare. Crime has increased significantly on STJ since we first started going there in the '80s (particularly major crime). The common view used to be that most crime on STJ was crime of opportunity. That's probably still true, but there definitely is more major crime. Still, STJ remains a relatively safe place, particularly if people are taking normal, common-sense precautions.

Okay we can complain and talk about crime in the islands all day long.

Once you have people, there is crime every where. Living in Central Florida
I hear all the crime in Orlando,Florida where is the difference. Children being
molested in hotel elevators people getting robbed and car jacked at Disney World.
So while we crying out look around. Just because you are in the islands or paradise just
remember it is home to someone else. It is funny Jamaica the number 1 destination
the hotels do not recommend you going out in island alone. Do you know why ??
Been there done that have the t-shirt to prove it. In the USVI you are told beware
of your surroundings not everyone is nice.

I just sat here and read all of these posts. Strangely, I agree, in some way, with almost all of them. I have been going down to STJ since 1996, and I cannot count how many times in those 11 years I have been there. I have close friends that were born and raised on the island, along with friends who moved down there to start a new life or open up a business. Never, NEVER, have I, nor my parents, had any crime committed against us. A friend of the family went with us one time, left her common sense at home, laid down her wallet for a few seconds beside her while she looked at a t-shirt, out at Mumbo Jumbo, and it got stolen. I might add that there were several wallets stolen out there that day and they seemed to think that it was a team working...they got in and out really fast. I also want to add that the police didn't really seem to care when we reported it.

I am repeating what other people have said, I think it is HORRIBLE what happened to Jamie. But I also agree that you have to be aware of your surroundings. Whether it is your first time, or your 20th time to go to a place...look around. If there are a lot of people (not matter what their skin color) hanging out at a place that you wouldn't normally hang out with, DON"T GO. I wouldn't go into a bar here in the states that looked like a "biker bar" (just an example, my husband owns a motorcycle), because I don't hang out with "bikers". Make sense???? I am not trying to put anyone down because of their lifestyle or race....

I agree that the police are very lax about everything down there, and I wonder if that comes with the mentality of the islands, and if that reason makes it appropriate enough to be explained away or not. I go back in forth in my head about this all the time, probably because I love STJ and the people there so much, I even got married there this past year.

I will continue to go to STJ, but I probably won't go into an establishment, that I wouldn't go into if I was at home, just because I am on vacation.

I hope they find the people responsible for this crime and bring them to justice. I hope that Jamie's family can find some sort of peace with the situation eventually. I hope that my beloved island isn't hurt too badly from all of this. I hope that the people who love and live on STJ come together as a community and stop all this arguing....I hope.

I too have read alot of posts about this murder and at any angle you look at it, it is extremely tragic. The lost of any life is tragic. I know I will be rambling on and I may be all around the spectrum, but please bare with me. I would like to send out to the family, my deepest condolence and I wish this had never happened. I was born on St. Thomas and raised on St. John. Left when I was 12, but visit almost every year, even did an 8 month stint in 1996. Crime has been on an uprise on St. John especially since I've been gone. These young kids have developed this "gangster, thug-like" mentality and I can't put a finger on one particular thing. There are so many different factors to blame, so to speak.

1. Parents (Kids having Kids), but that's a common story everywhere.
2. Kids going to the mainland and witnessing this type of behavior and thinking it's "cool".
3. Kids committing crimes and not being held accountable for their actions (by the community, courts, and/or parents)
4. Extremely high drop out rate ( out of school).
5. Parents
6. Not enough activities for the kids, they are just left to fend for themselves at an early age.

I can go on with the list, but I don't want to bore you. I can't blame it on there are no jobs because there are. There are tons of people that come from St. Thomas to St. John to work everyday because there are job opportunities. The last time I was on St. John was last year to my best friend's wedding and I actually had a co worker come down to visit. I wanted her to have a good time, but I guarded her like the secret service. Me being Black and her being White, I didn't want her to experience what I do consider reverse racism by a few. I had everyone I knew keeping a close eye on her, but the good thing about it was she didn't have a clue. She had a great time and wants to go back.

There are places on St Thomas I would never set foot unless I was with someone from that area. It has always been like that. Common sense and street sense goes a long way in life, period. I don't know what happened on that night and I won't speculate. I have been in contact with many of my friends on St. John and there are so many different stories going around. I wish the guilty will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but I just can't take the bashing any longer. I take this very personal. St. John is my home and I love it. If you choose not to re-visit or visit, that is your choice. Everywhere you go, you'll have your good people and unfortunately, your evil people. But that's everywhere you go whether it be to visit or to live. I'm sorry for rambling and I hope I haven't offended anyone. If I did, please accept my apologies........

Texsa2step

No apologies needed here. Thanks for your insight.

After reading the posts i cant help but wonder if any of the people that were blaming thomas actually sat and think that maybe they do actually have the wrong person for the murder. especially after Mccain wrote a statement trying to justify the young men. And from what i know police refused to take Mccain's statement, therefore, he posted it in the news. Also they have yet to interview any other witnesses (in the vi news thomas' attorney mentioned that there were witnesses, so im guessing he has more that one person that could speak on his behalf). i think something is very wrong with this picture. It seems like the police are hiding something. Either they cant find the correct murderer and snatched up the next best thing, or as folks say they're lazy so they just grabbed someone who they think can be easily prosecuted. people are just assuming that he is the killer rather than trying to see which part of the puzzle doesn't fit. there are very few people who i have found to be open minded about this case because they know that it can go either way.

condolences goes out to the family and also advise, make sure you find justice but with the actually criminal.

Six pack and selma have been identified as the killers for well over a month. It took a CNN film crew going to the island for the useless VI PD to make an arrest. The police have destroyed evidence and botched the investgation in such a way that I have absolutely no confidence in a conviction of any sort. The sad thing is that Jamie is not the only victim here. Every law abiding citizen of the USVI will pay a huge price as the tourists begin to realize that these islands are not safe. Why risk your life here, when you can go to the Florida Keys or Hawaii; and have the benefit of law enforcement that actually works to provide a safe environment for ALL.

Six Pack was identified by witnesses as the guy who cracked a pool cue over Jamie's head in the Front Yard. Six Pack and Selmo were identified by witnesses as the two guys who chased Jamie up the hill from the bar. Six Pack has been identified by a witness as threatening to "*&%# them up too" for talking to the police. The other guy (Ward?) arrested was captured as he tried to flee the island.

Could they have the wrong guys? Sure. I mean, look at all of the trouble they put poor OJ Simpson through, and he didn't murder anybody? He didn't, right?

Well said. Sixpack and Selmo have been going around St John bragging about murdering Jamie for 7 weeks now. In addition to several people coming forward with this information, we have many many witnesses from the bar that night who said they saw these two thugs hit him over the head with the pool cue and chase him up the street with a 2 by 4. Luke McCain is a friend/roommate of one of these losers . . . . of course he is going to say he's got an alibi. So all the witnesses have been lying???

The reason that these killers were left to roam the streets for 7 weeks is because the police don't care to solve the crime. Just take a look at Judge Kendall's record. He lets all criminals go. How is it that Meade, the guy charged with witness intimidation, has been arrested 13 times and never put in jail? Additionally, why haven't the police seized the getaway car to get evidence? There has got to be plenty of DNA in the car and the police know the identity of the car and the license plate.

I just don't understand how a territory can continue to operate like this. We know they did it, we have evidence that the police won't collect, and they're going to get off. They probably won't serve any time in prison because the authorities are completely corrupt. It just doesn't make any sense . . . .

To "Remembering Jamie."

Keep the faith. Despite the corruption and the tendency of Judge Kendall to let violent offenders walk away, I think we'll see a conviction in this case. There is way too much attention being paid to Jamie's murder right now...and given the record of Judge Kendall and the VI's inability to solve its murders, you can be the media will be watching the outcome of this one like a hawk. So if for no other reason than the economics of the tourist trade, I think we'll see these guys get put away. Unfortunately, it's apparent that the economics of the tourist trade are the ONLY reason we're seeing any action here.

The arrest comes too late man. This is the end of tourism on our island for a long time.