Editor’s Note: The story has been updated to reflect the court proceedings.
A defendant on trial in a St. Thomas kidnapping and torture case was shot and killed Thursday morning, just hours before jurors began deliberating in Superior Court.
The body of 32-year-old Desie C. Henry Jr. was found unresponsive shortly before 9 a.m. in the Paul M. Pearson Gardens Housing Community. The Virgin Islands Police Department reported that its ShotSpotter system detected five rounds fired in the area at approximately 8:43 a.m.
“At approximately 8:43 a.m., the ShotSpotter system detected five rounds fired in the area. Shortly after the alert multiple calls were received that a person was down. Responding officers arrived on the scene and confirmed the incident as a homicide,” police said in a report posted to the department’s Facebook page.
Henry was on trial alongside co-defendant Troy Harrigan in the case People of the Virgin Islands v. Troy Harrigan and Desie C. Henry, which stems from allegations that the two men abducted Percival Pringle on Sept. 13, 2020, in an attempt to extract money.
Despite the sudden development, court proceedings continued.
Superior Court Judge Denise Francois instructed jurors shortly after noon and sent them to deliberate in the case against Harrigan. During proceedings, charges against Henry were dropped after it was learned he had been killed earlier that morning.
The development was not addressed directly in the courtroom during the proceedings. Information about Henry’s death emerged outside the courtroom as officials confirmed the killing.
Attorney General Gordon Rhea said he learned of the situation around 9 a.m. after receiving a call from the chief of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
Rhea said Criminal Chief Timothy Perry informed him that one of the defendants had been killed.
“I knew what happened; he told me right away. We talked about what to do about it,” Rhea said.
Rhea, who was off island at the time, said that in his years handling criminal cases, he could not recall a situation in which a defendant became a homicide victim while a trial involving that defendant was still underway.
The shooting also prompted heightened security at the Alexander A. Farrelly Justice Complex, where the trial was taking place. Close to a dozen uniformed, masked and heavily armed officers were stationed at entrances and in the courtyard of the courthouse. Federal marshals and other law enforcement personnel remained posted outside as proceedings continued.
Deliberations in the Harrigan case continued through the afternoon under the watch of Superior Court marshals and courthouse security.
Activity around Francois’ courtroom picked up around 3 p.m. as attorneys and court staff gathered. Prosecutors and defense attorney Robert Leycock Jr. entered the locked courtroom. Harrigan arrived on the third floor about an hour later, remained for roughly 20 minutes, and then left.
As of 5 p.m. Thursday, the jury remained behind closed doors in the deliberation room.
The trial centers on allegations that Harrigan and Henry abducted Pringle and held him for several hours while beating and torturing him in an attempt to force him to disclose the location of $800,000 that prosecutors said he possessed.
Court filings state that Pringle eventually broke away from his captors and attempted to escape before police arrived and rescued him.
Harrigan was arrested Sept. 15, 2020. Local and federal authorities arrested Henry the following day.
Earlier in the trial, Francois ruled on a series of motions challenging the charges against the defendants. Six charges were dismissed, though several counts remained.
“I find evidence that the jury could find proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” Francois said from the bench earlier this week.
If convicted of the most serious charge, kidnapping for ransom, the defendants faced a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Police said the homicide investigation into Henry’s killing remains active.
Henry’s death marks the second homicide reported this year on St. Thomas and the fifth in the territory, with three recorded on St. Croix and none on St. John, according to the Source Homicide List*.
*The Source Homicide List is a chronological log of homicides recorded in 2026 in the U.S. Virgin Islands based on reports from the Virgin Islands Police Department. The listing does not include suicides or vehicular homicides, which are sometimes counted in police statistics and by other media outlets, creating occasional discrepancies in totals.
