Two men were arrested Friday and charged with the murder of 20-year-old Titus Jaunai, who was shot and killed Sept. 1 in Estate Upper Love, the V.I. Police Department reported.
Detectives of the Criminal Investigation Bureau arrested Deshawn Nelson and Jabari White, both 19, based on sealed warrants issued by the Virgin Islands Superior Court. Nelson was arrested at 7:30 a.m. Detectives arrested White two hours later, at 9:30 a.m.
The two suspects are charged with murder in the first degree, reckless endangerment in the first degree, first-degree assault, attempted robbery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence, and interfering with an officer discharging his duty.
They were held on a $500,000 bail and remanded to custody pending their advice-of-rights hearing.
Jaunai’s death was the 17th recorded on St. Croix since Jan. 1, and the 47th in the territory.
Jaunai was found in the vicinity of Annaly Farms in Estate Upper Love, the morning after an attempted robbery at the farm brought police from all over the island to search for the suspects.
According to police, three men had tried to rob Annaly Farms at gunpoint around noon on Aug. 31. The suspects ran off when a shot was fired.
By 12:30 p.m., dozens of police cars had homed in on the Upper and Lower Love areas, blocking roads and scouring fields and brush in an attempt to capture the suspects. From an area bounded roughly by Queen Mary Highway on the south, Midland Road on the north, Highway 69 (Paradise Road) on the west and the Department of Agriculture facilities on the east, police stood on top of their cars for better vantages and ranged across the open fields.
But the suspects eluded capture at that time.
At about 1 a.m. the next morning, police were notified of a body, later identified as Jaunai, on the side of the road. Jaunai was on probation for a prior crime.
