The V.I. Police Department has identified 23-year-old Joshawn Ayala as the man who died after being shot in the head Friday afternoon at Moe’s Service Station in Estate Glynn, a name familiar to law enforcement after a series of criminal cases that included charges in the 2022 killings of Stacie Schjang and Arnold Jarvis that prosecutors dismissed without prejudice last year.
Ayala and a woman were found wounded inside a black SUV after the 911 Emergency Call Center received a report at approximately 12:45 p.m. Friday of a man shot in the head in the service station parking lot. Police said Ayala suffered a gunshot wound to the head while the woman was grazed by a bullet. Both were transported to Juan F. Luis Hospital, where Ayala later died. The woman’s injuries were described as non-life-threatening.
VIPD has not publicly identified a suspect or disclosed a possible motive in Friday’s shooting, and the investigation remains active. Police also have not publicly connected Ayala’s death to any of his previous criminal cases.
His identification, however, brings renewed attention to a lengthy history with the territory’s criminal justice system that began more than four years ago with the 2022 killings of Schjang and Jarvis.
Ayala was 20 when police announced in November 2022 that he and his cousin, Anthony Schneider, were wanted in connection with both deaths. The pair were later charged with two counts of first-degree murder, along with assault, firearms, ammunition and reckless endangerment offenses.
According to the Superior Court’s later summary of the police affidavit supporting those charges, Schjang was killed Jan. 27, 2022, after a shot fired from outside struck her inside her Peter’s Rest home.
Jarvis, who was Schjang’s boyfriend, told police that while he was driving toward her home, he heard gunfire and then realized his own vehicle was being struck, shattering its rear glass. The court record says Jarvis later made statements to investigators identifying Ayala and Schneider in connection with the gunfire. Those allegations were never proven at trial.
Eight days later, on Feb. 4, 2022, Jarvis was killed at Green Cay Beach.
The government’s case later relied in part on another witness whom police said told investigators he had overheard Ayala and Schneider discussing Jarvis’ killing. According to the court order, the witness said Ayala had described traveling with Schneider to Green Cay Beach, waiting for Jarvis and shooting him. Those allegations also were never tested before a jury.
Police obtained warrants for Ayala and Schneider in November 2022. Ayala was later arrested in Georgia and extradited to St. Croix in February 2023, where he was formally arrested in connection with the two killings. His bail was set at $1 million.
While Ayala was being held at the John A. Bell Adult Correctional Facility, another criminal case followed. An information filed in Superior Court in 2023 alleged that Ayala possessed a knife, multiple drill bits and a cellphone while confined at the facility. Prosecutors charged him with two counts of promoting dangerous prison contraband.
The murder prosecution, however, did not proceed to trial.
In May 2025, the V.I. Justice Department moved to dismiss the charges against Ayala and Schneider without prejudice, telling the court that prosecutors could not meet their burden of proof at that time. The Superior Court granted the dismissal May 9.
Attorney General Gordon Rhea subsequently said the case had come to depend primarily on a witness who had initially given investigators a statement linking the defendants to the killings but later submitted a sworn affidavit recanting that account. Prosecutors concluded the available evidence was insufficient to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Because the case was dismissed without prejudice, prosecutors retained the ability to bring charges again if sufficient evidence later became available. Ayala was never convicted in connection with either killing.
Ayala later sought to have the case dismissed with prejudice, which would have prevented prosecutors from refiling the charges. His defense argued, among other things, that the witness’s recantation supported allegations that he had been threatened and coerced into making false statements implicating the defendants.
Superior Court Judge Yvette Ross-Edwards rejected that request.
In the court’s July 2025 order, Ross-Edwards said accepting the recantation affidavit as proof of intentional misconduct would require the court to determine whether the witness’s original statement or later recantation was truthful — a factual and credibility determination properly left to a jury. The court found no other evidence in the record establishing willful misconduct or prosecutorial bad faith and denied Ayala’s motion for reconsideration.
Months later, Ayala again came under investigation by VIPD in a separate case that began at Moe’s Service Station.
On Oct. 22, 2025, police seized an Acura RDX at the Estate Glynn service station as part of an investigation involving Ayala and his girlfriend concerning an illegal firearm. Ayala was driving the vehicle at the time, with Lloyd Ferdinand as the passenger.
A Superior Court magistrate issued a search warrant for the Acura the following day. According to VIPD, members of the Criminal Investigation Bureau executed the warrant and recovered a firearm, ammunition and narcotics.
Arrest warrants were issued for Ayala and Ferdinand on Nov. 7. Ferdinand was arrested at his residence Nov. 15, while police said Ayala had left the territory.
On Jan. 14, officers on St. Croix received information that Ayala had returned to the Virgin Islands. Two days later, VIPD said he was detained without incident and arrested.
Ayala was charged with carrying a firearm openly or concealed, possession of ammunition, trafficking cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia, simple possession and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.
His bail was set at $50,000, which VIPD said he was unable to post, and he was transported to the John A. Bell Adult Correctional Facility pending his Advice of Rights hearing. Those charges were allegations, and the information available from police does not establish their ultimate disposition.
Friday’s shooting occurred at the same service station where police had seized the Acura roughly nine months earlier.
VIPD has not said whether that prior investigation has any connection to Ayala’s killing. Police also have not disclosed how many people were involved in Friday’s shooting, whether Ayala was specifically targeted or what investigators believe led to the gunfire.
No arrests in Ayala’s killing had been announced in the department’s latest release.
VIPD is asking anyone with information about the shooting to contact 911, the Criminal Investigation Bureau at 340-778-2211 or Crime Stoppers VI at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
