A District Court jury on St. Croix Thursday convicted four men on murder and other charges for crimes committed during the curfew following Hurricane Georges last September.
The eight-man, four-woman jury found Juan "Popo" Crispin, 19; Hernan Navarro, 21; Luis "Cachilon" Lopez, 19; and Delroy "Danger Mouse" Josiah, 21, guilty of, among other charges, the murder of 61-year-old Enfield Green resident Orlando Orta early on Sept. 23, 1998.
After deliberating for most of the day Thursday, the jury returned with guilty verdicts on a variety of federal and territorial charges. All four were convicted of federal carjacking and firearms offenses as well as local charges of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary and first-degree assault and mayhem.
Navarro was also found guilty of threatening a witness.
The crimes were committed on Sept. 22 and 23 during a nighttime, island-wide curfew that was imposed after Hurricane Georges had left St. Croix without power the day before.
During the trial, federal prosecutors argued that the four men were linked to the shotgun murder of Orta, and the wounding of his wife, as well as a violent home invasion and robbery rampage in Mount Pleasant and Enfield Green during the night and early morning of Sept. 22 and 23.
Prosecutors said that at about 10:30 p.m. on Sept. 22, the four hooded men, dressed in camouflage clothing, entered a Mount Pleasant home, where they demanded money of the occupants. They then tied up and beat the residents while burglarizing the home.
The men then went to a home in Enfield Green and proceeded to tie up and beat the couple who lived there. After robbing the house, they stole a van belonging to one of the victims and drove it to the Ortas' residence.
There, Orlando Orta was killed by a shotgun blast to the chest. His wife was shot in the hand with a 9-mm. handgun. Police responded when neighbors reported shots fired, but the suspects had already fled.
Defense attorneys argued that the prosecution failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the men accused of the crimes were guilty.
The men will be sentenced after the probation department conducts a presentence assessment.The maximum penalty for first-degree murder is life in prison without parole. First-degree burglary carries a maximum 30-year sentence; first-degree robbery has a maximum of 20 years; first-degree assault and carjacking have maximums of 15 years; threatening a witness is 10 years and the firearms conviction has a mandatory minimum of five years in prison.
