Sept. 18, 2006 – Rennell Lettsome was sentenced to 57 and a half years Monday by Superior Court Judge Brenda Hollar for the murder of David Geiger, and the almost fatal beating of his 14-year-old son, Nathan Geiger, and related charges.
Jurors found Lettsome guilty of the second-degree murder of Geiger, the second-degree attempted murder of Nathan Geiger, third-degree assault against Nathan Geiger, first-degree arson, and accompanying deadly weapons charges for all those crimes at the trial, which ended Aug. 11.
The jury acquitted Lettsome of the most serious charges: first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder.
Hollar had issue with the second-degree murder charge, which carries a minimum five-year sentence with no maximum.
She grilled defense attorney Pedro Williams and prosecutor Kelly Evans at length about their recommendations for the charge.
Hollar repeatedly called the second-degree sentencing a "legislative quirk." She asked Evans if the Attorney General's Office had told the Legislature about the situation.
She said the sentence, as it reads now, "is a crime itself."
Lettsome was found guilty of entering Geiger's home in the early morning hours of Oct. 29, 2005, and stabbing, strangling and beating the 43-year old man to death. After that, Lettsome beat
Nathan Geiger with a pipe and left him for dead.
Shortly after, Lettsome returned to the house and set it on fire.
Alerted by the fire, neighbors pulled the unconscious Nathan Geiger out of the house, as flames spread through the structure.
Throughout the trial Williams tried to shift the blame to Amber Taylor, Lettsome's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child. She had provided police with information that led to an arrest warrant.
Taylor told police investigators that her friend, Tullius Stewart, had stolen $50,000 from Geiger's home when she was house-sitting. In an affidavit, she told authorities that she had told Lettsome of the burglary six days later and that Lettsome – after checking Taylor. her two children and himself into a St. Thomas hotel – went to Geiger's house to get more money Taylor had told him was there.
She said Lettsome returned to the hotel the next day and told her he had killed Geiger.
During the trial, Hollar took issue with the fact that Taylor was in Florida, too far away to subpoena.
Prosecutor Ernest Bason said Taylor was sent to Florida with the help of the V.I. government. Bason was not present Monday.
Hollar brought this up again Monday. "The first thing the jurors wanted to know," Hollar said, "was why Taylor hadn't testified. The government failed to provide her; they helped her to hide, which [may have] influenced the jury's verdict. If the government had behaved differently in this case, I would be sentencing [Lettsome] to life in prison without parole today."?
Friends of Lettsome's, along with his mother, extolled his virtues on Monday. They said Lettsome was a "good father," and his mother called him a "good man."
Hollar listened to a plea for mercy from Williams, who described Lettsome as "remorseful."
Hollar allowed Lettsome to speak for himself.
Lettsome stood and said, "I am sorry for St. John. I would like to apologize to some people who aren't in this room. I am sorry for the crime…" He spoke so quietly that his statement trailed off.
Evans called Lisa Geiger – Geiger's ex-wife and Nathan's mother – to the stand.
Fighting back tears, she said to Lettsome: "You have hurt so many people, other than David. His sister, all his nieces and nephews, his countless friends on St. John and around the world. We struggle daily to understand your disregard for another's life. My son's life has been unbelievably altered. His has lost the most important person in the world to him, his dad."
"I hope you understand karma – what goes around, comes around. You have given a lot of bad karma. I hope the gruesome images of David and Nathan remain with you forever."
Evans then called Gail Geiger, David Geiger's sister, to the stand. Staring straight at Lettsome, she said, "I want to know what happened that night. Why did you have to kill my brother? You already had the money. I had to go into that house of horrors and scrape my brother's flesh off the floor in the bedroom where you had beaten him until he was pulp."
"They say you're a good father," Geiger continued. "Did you think about your children? They'll grow up to be criminals just like you. Why did you have to kill him? He even helped your stupid girlfriend."
Hollar said, "It is difficult for me to pass sentence, especially on a young person." She said she had found Nathan Geiger's testimony "compelling." "He was very brave. He was specific about how he misses the food here. That rang a bell with me. He was born here; he knows this culture."
"The pictures of that crime were the most horrible I have seen in all my career," Hollar said. "I wouldn't allow the jury to see all of them."
Stating that she had prayed over her decisions, Hollar read the sentences:
–Second-degree murder – 25 years;
–The accompanying weapons charge – 15 years;
–First-degree arson – 20 years with 10 years suspended because of Lettsome notifying neighbors of the fire;
–Arson weapons charge – seven and a half years.
Williams said he will appeal the charges.
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