Assistant Territorial Public Defender Dwayne Henry has filed a motion to dismiss two first-degree murder charges against Angelo Javier Carmona, charged in the June 2025 shooting death of Jordan “Dutty Heart” Jones on St. Croix, because he was just 15 at the time of the incident and, as a juvenile, should not be subject to a mandatory sentence of life without parole if convicted.
While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a court must refuse to apply such a sentence to a juvenile and must consider youth-related mitigation factors, Title 14 of the Virgin Islands Code under which Carmona is charged has no such provision, according to the motion filed Friday in V.I. Superior Court on St. Croix.
“Under the indictment/statute as charged, a term of life without parole (LWOP) would be a mandatory sentencing outcome should the Defendant be convicted as charged since the statute requires it,” according to Henry’s motion.
It would also violate the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which forbids a sentence of life without parole if the person was a juvenile at the time of the alleged offense, and also prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment,” said Henry.
Among the issues, Henry said, is whether before trial or a plea agreement, “the Court must require individualized consideration of juvenile-specific mitigating factors and provide defense access to mitigation resources and experts if the prosecution is seeking a [life without parole] sentence.”
Citing multiple cases, Henry noted that the U.S. Supreme Court “has consistently ruled that juveniles are constitutionally different from adults for purposes of sentencing and therefore cannot be subjected to the harshest penalties without careful limitations.”
In Miller v. Alabama, for example, “the Court held that mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles — even in murder cases — are unconstitutional. The Court did not specifically ban life without parole for juveniles, but it required individualized sentencing that considers the offender’s youth and attendant characteristic,” according to the motion.
Carmona is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, first-degree assault, third-degree assault, reckless endangerment, first-degree robbery, unauthorized possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence and possession of ammunition in the June 5 death of Jones, a beloved St. Croix comedian, and has pleaded not guilty. Following his arrest, the V.I. Justice Department announced Carmona would be tried as an adult.
Since then, his defense has requested a court-ordered mental health evaluation of the teen — who is being held on $500,000 bail and has been in solitary confinement since his arrest — raising concerns that he “seems delusional and may not be in touch with reality.” In that motion filed in December, Henry also noted that Carmona, now 16, “has had a disruptive childhood, including his father being convicted of a domestic sexual offense.”
Judge Venetia Harvey Velazquez subsequently ordered the V.I. Health Department’s Behavioral Health, Alcoholism and Drug Dependency Services Division to develop a long-term treatment plan depending on the outcome of a mental health evaluation.
However, a plan still had not been produced by the time of a competency hearing for Carmona in March, because the Health Department “took the position that the Defendant was not within its purview, due to his youth,” prompting Velazquez to put several officials from the Justice and Health departments on notice to show the court why they should not be held in contempt.
“They’re just ping-ponging this kid between Human Services and Health, and it’s wrong,” Henry told the Source at the time. “Like the judge herself said, ‘this is delaying the administration of justice’ — and that’s exactly what it is. Nobody is being served by them doing this.”
A proposed treatment plan was subsequently filed with the court on March 20 but is not available for public viewing.
The V.I. Justice Department had not responded to Henry’s motion as of Tuesday, nor had the judge issued a ruling.
A pretrial conference is scheduled for May 25 and 27 in V.I. Superior Court on St. Croix.
